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The  Carpenter  Prophet 


Th( 


Carpenter  Prophet 

A   LIFE   OF    JESUS   CHRIST 

AND    A    DISCUSSION 

OF    HIS    IDEALS 


BY 


CHARLES  WILLIAM  PEARSON 


HERBERT  S.  STONE  AND  COMPANY 
CHICAGO   AND   NEW  YORK 

MCMII 

L<^ 


COPYRIGHT,    1902,    BY 
CHARLES   W.   PEARSON 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


CHAPTBR 

I.  The  Gospels     .... 

II.  The  Birth  of  Jesus 

III.  The  Boyhood  of  Jesus     . 

IV.  The  Early  Manhood  of  Jesus 
V.  The  Baptism  and  Temptation 

VI.  The  Kingdom  of  Heaven    . 

'  VII.  Christ  as  a  Teacher . 

VIII.  Miracles        .... 

IX.  Prayer      .... 

X.  The  Visit  to  Nazareth 

XI.  The  Calling  of  the  Disciples  . 

XII.  Attitude  Towards  Women  and  Children 

XIII.  Peter  Declares  Jesus  to  be  the  Son  of  God 

XIV.  The  Transfiguration  and  Second  Coming 
XV.  The  Final  Preparation  of  the  Apostles 

XVI.  The  Last  Journey  to  Jerusalem 

XVII.  The  Temple 

XVIII.  The  Last  Supper  and  Farewell 

XIX.  Judas  Iscariot 

XX.  Gethsemane 

XXI.  The  Trial      .... 

XXII.  Pontius  Pilate 

XXIII.  The  Crucifixion    . 

XXIV.  The  Descent  Into  HeU    . 
XXV,  The  Resurrection 

XXVI.  The  Ascension 

XXVII.  Jesus  as  a  Man     . 

XXVIII.  The  Testimony  of  Scripture 

XXIX.  The  Christian  Centuries      . 


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PREFACE 

It  is  to  me  a  deep  satisfaction  that  I  have 
been  able  to  complete  this  work,  which  I 
venture  to  affirm  has  been  written  with  a  sin- 
cere desire  to  promote  truth  and  righteous- 
ness and  with  patient  solicitude  as  to  facts 
and  expression,  although  it  is  evident  to  me 
that  in  the  nature  of  the  case  it  is  but  tentative 
and  initial.  There  are  probably  many  errors 
in  detail  and  many  instances  of  wrong  empha- 
sis and  wrong  shading,  and,  for  the  sake  of 
brevity,  much  has  been  omitted.  Yet  it  is,  I 
hope,  a  step  in  the  right  direction,  the  begin- 
ning of  a  line  of  investigation  which  others 
may  continue. 

The  argument  of  this  book  is  that  all  the 
superhuman  powers  attributed  to  Jesus, 
whether  by  the  enthusiasm  of  disciples,  by 
the  imagination  of  poets,  or  by  the  self-inter- 
est of  priests,  are  untrue,  and  if  they  are  un- 
true it  follows  as  a  matter  of  course  that  they 
are  hurtful.  God  is  the  God  of  truth  and  man 
becomes  godlike  in  proportion  as  he  knows 
and  obeys  the  truth. 

Much  that  is  true  and  helpful  about  Jesus 


vi  PREFACE 

has  not  yet  been  said,  or  at  least  has  not  been 
said  simply  and  unprofessionally  and  in  the 
light  of  recent  study  and  investigation.  The 
gospel  lives  can  never  lose  their  unique  charm 
and  pre-eminence,  yet  they  are  written  from  a 
point  of  view  so  different  from  our  own  as 
often  to  be  unintelligible  and  even  mislead- 
ing. The  gospels  were  written  in  an  age  of 
intense  supernaturalism.  Their  authors  lived  in 
a  world  as  full  of  angels  and  devils  as  of  human 
beings,  a  world  of  imagination  and  miracle, 
totally  unlike  the  modern  world  of  scientific 
observation  and  psychological  analysis. 

My  aim  is  to  discard  all  purely  Jewish 
conceptions  and  all  the  traditions  and  con- 
ventions of  Christian  theologians  and  rever- 
ently but  frankly  to  study  "the  man  Christ 
Jesus."  My  sympathy  and  fellowship  are 
with  those  by  whatever  name  they  are  called, 
who  love  and  admire  and  try  to  imitate  Jesus 
Christ,  and  I  have  only  pity  and  sorrow  for 
those  who  are  hostile  to  his  spirit,  if  any  such 
persons  there  are.  There  may  be  such,  but  it 
has  never  been  my  ill-fortune  to  meet  them. 
Opponents  of  the  corruptions  and  abuses  of 
the  church,  men  who  scorn  it  for  its  unbelief 
and  hypocrisy,  men  who  deride  the  theolog- 
ical   caricatures   of    the    historic    Christ,    are 


PREFACE  vii 

numerous  enough.  But  there  are  none  who  do 
not  admire  him  who  taught  and  exemplified 
the  Golden  Rule,  who  antagonized  every  wrong 
and  promoted  every  right,  who  did  good  to  all 
to  the  utmost  of  his  power,  who  forgave  his 
enemies,  and  to  crown  all  sealed  the  sincerity 
of  a  noble  life  by  a  patient  and  heroic  death. 
The  true  Christ  all  men  admire,  but  alas!  the 
true  Christ  is  hidden  from  many  by  veils  of 
ritual  and  clouds  of  controversy. 

Physical  science  has  in  a  century  revolution- 
ized the  world;  and  moral  science,  if  it  were 
cultivated  with  the  same  fidelity  and  care, 
could  produce  even  greater  results,  for  moral 
are  stronger  than  physical  forces.  If,  instead 
of  the  careless  assumptions  and  vague  rhetor- 
ical declamations  of  the  pulpit,  we  could  have 
accurate  and  thorough  teaching  in  religion  and 
morals;  if,  like  men  of  science,  clergymen 
should  keep  silence  till  they  had  something 
definite  to  say,  and  should  then,  after  careful 
examination  of  every  phase  of  the  question, 
present  their  conclusions  with  scientific  caution 
and  thoroughness,  the  pulpit  would  again 
command  a  serious  hearing.  At  present,  un- 
pleasant as  it  is  to  say  it,  a  clergyman's  utter- 
ances are  very  lightly  regarded.  We  read  in 
the  Acts   of    the   Apostles    that    when    Paul 


viii  PREFACE 

preached  at  Ephesus,  "Many  of  those  who 
used  curious  arts  brought  their  books  together, 
and  burned  them  before  all  men."  If  we  could 
have  a  similar  bonfire  of  all  the  text-books  of 
systematic  theology  and  all  the  sermons  based 
upon  them,  there  would  be  as  great  a  relative 
gain  to-day  as  when  the  work  of  God  as  preached 
by  Paul  "mightily  grew  and  prevailed." 

But  perhaps  the  preacher  will  say,  "I  don't 
any  longer  preach  the  infallibility  of  the 
Bible,  or  the  Fall,  or  the  historic  truth  of  the 
Book  of  Daniel,  or  demoniacal  possession,  or 
other  errors."  On  the  contrary,  silence  gives 
assent.  You  must  take  sides.  He  that  is  not 
with  a  debated  truth  is  against  it.  Every 
time  a  preacher  praises  honesty  and  courage 
and  zeal  in  behalf  of  truth,  he  by  implication 
claims  these  qualities  for  himself,  claims  that 
he  is  not  evading  or  sophisticating,  not  "han- 
dling the  word  of  God  deceitfully,"  but  is  striv- 
ing to  declare  faithfully  "the  whole  counsel  of 
God"  as  he  understands  it.  You  cannot  evade 
the  issue.  You  must  choose  between  a  view 
that  harmonizes  with  every  known  truth  and  a 
view  that  opposes  every  truth  in  every  field  of 
knowledge. 

My  appeal  to  ministerial  readers  is  this: 

If  you  are  so  constituted  or  have  been  so 


PREFACE  ix 

educated  that  these  views  seem  to  you  abso- 
lutely unreasonable  and  impossible,  it  is  your 
plain  duty  to  reject  them.  But  if  you  have  a 
suspicion  that  they  are  true,  if  the  question 
seems  to  you  a  fairly  debatable  one,  is  it  not 
most  important  to  the  integrity  of  your  mind 
and  heart  that  you  look  into  it?  Can  there  be 
a  greater  condemnation  than  to  reject  acces- 
sible and  offered  light,  to  close  your  eyes  and 
to  say,  "No  matter  what  the  truth  is,  I  will  not 
accept  it"? 

I  wish  to  undermine  no  man's  faith.  If  he 
has  no  difficulties  and  desires  no  further  knowl- 
edge, I  have  nothing  to  say  to  him;  but  if  he 
feels  perplexed  and  dissatisfied,  if  current  ex- 
planations seem  superficial  and  evasive,  this 
book  will  perhaps  help  him  to  see  more  clearly. 
Above  all  I  wish  to  destroy  no  man's  hope, 
but  to  substitute  a  larger  and  happier  view  of 
life  for  the  narrow  and  gloomy  one  of  "ortho- 
dox" theology. 

For  the  theological  fiction  of  an  omnipotent 
God  incarnate  I  wish  to  substitute  the  inspir- 
ing truth  of  a  heroic  man  pressing  on  to  a  great 
end  in  spite  of  every  weakness  and  temptation 
that  besets  humanity. 


The   Carpenter   Prophet 

CHAPTER   I 

THE   GOSPELS 

It  is  necessary  in  basing  a  study  of  the  genius 
and  character  of  Jesus  upon  the  gospels  to 
establish  some  principle  by  which  to  select 
what  is  trustworthy  from  the  mass  of  incon- 
sistent and  incredible  statements.  Every 
biographer  or  historian  is  compelled  thus  to 
sift  the  body  of  contemporary  opinion  and 
conjecture  and  the  eulogies  and  invectives 
based  on  these  early  traditions.  A  writer, 
whether  a  biographer,  novelist  or  poet,  must 
seize  some  principle  of  unity  and  make  his 
representation  consistent  with  itself.  Tenny- 
son, for  instance,  has  ignored  all  the  traditions 
derogatory  to  King  Arthur,  and  has  based  his 
portraiture  on  the  words  of  Joseph  of  Exeter, 
Flos  regum  Arthurus,  Arthur,  the  flower  of  kings. 
He  could  not  make  the  same  man  an  Arthur 
and  a  Lancelot,  for  the  types  are  contradictory 
and  exclude  each  other. 


2         THE   CARPENTER   PROPHET 

There  is  a  dominant  motive,  a  ruling  tend- 
ency, in  every  character  by  which  alone  it  can 
be  interpreted.  This  does  not  mean  that  good 
men  do  not  fall  into  sin  or  that  bad  men  have 
no  redeeming  qualities,  but  it  does  mean  that 
there  are  limits  to  the  fluctuation  of  character, 
because  "as  a  man  thinketh  in  his  heart,  so  is 
he";  and,  in  spite  of  apparently  capricious  and 
perplexing  variations,  the  outward  life  must 
be  an  expression  of  the  inner  spirit.  "A  good 
tree  cannot  bring  forth  evil  fruit,  neither  can  a 
corrupt  tree  bring  forth  good  fruit,"  "By 
their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them." 

In  the  case  of  Jesus  the  question  for  deter- 
mination is  whether  he  is  to  be  considered  as 
living  a  human  life  "tempted  in  all  points  as 
we  are"  and  helped  to  resist  temptation  as  we 
are  by  the  grace  of  God,  or  whether  he  was  a 
God  in  disguise  consciously  possessed  of  infi- 
nite knowledge,  power,  and  sovereignty. 
Evangelical  preachers  waver  very  curiously 
between  these  inconsistent  opinions.  They 
point  us  to  the  unworldliness  of  Jesus  as  he 
rejects  the  kingdoms  of  this  world,  but  what 
possible  temptation  could  the  empty  and 
transient  rulership  of  this  world  be  to  the  Lord 
of  heaven  and  earth  and  of  all  things  visible 
and  invisible.     To  be  a  real  temptation  it  must 


THE   GOSPELS  3 

be  addressed  to  a  real  man.  A  millionaire 
who  has  left  his  pocketbook  at  home  and  is  for 
the  moment  penniless  in  a  large  city,  but  can 
go  to  the  nearest  telegraph  or  telephone  office 
and  call  for  an  abundant  supply,  cannot  be 
said  to  have  known  the  pains  and  anxieties  of 
poverty,  and,  even  if  for  any  reason  he  chooses 
to  forego  the  immediate  use  of  his  resources, 
the  knowledge  that  he  has  them  is  an  incalcu- 
lable support  and  removes  him  from  the  class 
of  really  poor  men.  Hunger  has  no  terrors 
for  one  who  can  turn  stones  into  bread  and 
miraculously  multiply  loaves  and  fishes.  Fa- 
tigue and  homelessness  are  impossible  to  one 
who  ever  carries  about  with  him  a  conscious- 
ness of  almighty  power  and  of  universal 
dominion.  The  desertion  of  his  human 
supporters  would  be  no  disaster  or  trial  to  one 
who  could  at  will  summon  legions  of  angels. 
There  is  no  possibility  of  walking  by  faith  and 
being  an  example  of  heroism,  if  the  end  is 
known  from  the  beginning  and  if  mere  finite 
temptations  are  offered  to  an  infinite  God  or 
petty  obstacles  opposed  to  almighty  powers. 
If  Jesus  was  God,  he  walked  in  invulnerable 
armor  and  wielded  irresistible  weapons,  and  is 
no  example  or  comfort  to  such  frail  and  suffer- 
ing soldiers  of  conscience  as  we  are.     But  that 


4         THE   CARPENTER   PROPHET 

the  professed  Son  of  Man  deceived  men  with 
mere  phantom  sorrows  and  unreal  wounds  and 
death  is  a  heresy  that  the  intellect  and  con- 
science of  Christendom  rejected  in  the  early 
centuries  and  always  rejects  when  it  is  nakedly 
asserted;  but  this  heresy  is  nevertheless  inex- 
tricably bound  up  with  the  belief  in  the  su- 
preme deity  of  Jesus,  and  his  omniscience  and 
perfect  command  of  all  forces  while  on  earth. 

We  must,  then,  make  our  election  between 
considering  him  God  or  man,  for  he  cannot  be 
both.  Poets  indeed  have  feigned  such  dual 
beings,  but  they  do  not  exist,  and  a  demi-god 
is  as  unreal  as  a  centaur  or  a  mermaid. 

Starting,  then,  with  the  fundamental  concep- 
tion that  Jesus  was  a  man,  it  follows  that  all 
statements  that  attribute  to  him  actions  or 
powers  wholly  superhuman  must  be  either 
mythical  or  legendary.  In  regard  to  all  other 
mythologies  and  legends  most  people  act  upon 
this  principle  without  the  slightest  hesitation 
or  momentary  suspicion  that  they  are  wrong. 
They  dismiss  all  such  tales  from  Greek  or 
Roman,  from  Hindu  or  Arabian  mythology 
with  perfect  confidence  and  serenity,  simply 
because  they  know  them  to  be  contrary  to  the 
familiar  laws  of  nature  and  facts  of  life. 
Protestants  also  dismiss  with  equal  nonchalance 


THE    GOSPELS  5 

all  the  apocryphal  gospels  and  all  the  vast 
body  of  legends  of  the  Madonna,  and  of  all 
the  countless  saints  and  martyrs  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church.  Yet  there  is  no  essential  dif- 
ference between  the  miracles  of  the  canonical 
and  the  miracles  of  the  apocryphal  gospels. 
The  unerring  popular  judgment  has  selected  in 
the  gospels  the  best  specimens  of  this  class  of 
tales  as  it  selects  the  best  of  every  class  of 
imaginative,  historical,  or  scientific  books, 
but  to  the  best  as  to  the  worst,  to  the  most  as 
to  the  least  artistic  legend,  the  same  tests  must 
be  applied.  How  do  we  know  that  the 
legends  of  the  Madonna  are  not  true?  Do  not 
Protestants  dismiss  with  indifference  the 
story  of  her  assumption  to  heaven,  even  while 
they  are  pained  that  those  who  carry  Protes- 
tant principles  a  step  further  should  dismiss 
the  assumption  of  Jesus  as  a  legend  of  the 
same  class  and  in  no  respect  more  authentic 
than  the  story  of  the  ascent  of  Romulus  or  of 
the  scores  of  others  of  whom  such  translations 
have  been  fancied  or  feigned? 

If  thorough  consistency  in  the  application  of 
critical  tests  seems  shocking  to  any  persons, 
would  it  not  be  well  for  such  persons  to  aim  at 
consistency  in  deductions  from  their  own 
premises?     If  the  gospel  statements  are  all  to 


6         THE  CARPENTER   PROPHET 

be  literally  accepted  the  primacy  of  Peter  and 
the  power  of  his  successors  to  bind  and  loose 
is  not  easily  disproved,  nor  is  the  church 
easily  acquitted  of  sinful  negligence  in  not 
exercising  its  miraculous  power  to  heal  the 
sick,  to  raise  the  dead,  and  to  cast  out  devils. 
The  truth  is  that  Protestants  treat  the  Scrip- 
tures capriciously,  and  waver  oddly  between 
faith  and  rationalism.  If  reason  is  to  be 
thrown  out  of  court  and  faith  in  the  infallibility 
of  Scripture  is  to  govern  belief  and  conduct, 
let  faith  have  the  full  and  rich  development  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  but  if  that  experiment  has 
been  sufficiently  tried  and  found  to  issue  in 
intellectual  and  moral  degradation,  let  us  con- 
sistently apply  the  principles  of  reason  and 
not,  by  halting  between  two  opinions,  obtain 
the  benefit  of  neither. 

But  the  word  faith  is  abused  when  it  is 
applied  to  the  belief  of  things  inherently  in- 
credible. True  faith  is  always  in  accord  with 
the  highest  reason.  It  applies  only  to  things 
beyond  our  present  knowledge,  and  it  is 
wholly  rational  to  hope  and  believe  many 
things  which  we  cannot  yet  prove.  But  while 
we  thus  outrun  knowledge  and  leave  it  far 
behind  in  our  hopes  for  the  future  of  our  race 
in  this  world  and  in  the  world  to  come,  we  do 


THE    GOSPELS  7 

not  ignore  it  in  relation  to  matters  under  our 
present  observation.  To  all  earthly  history 
and  to  all  alleged  facts  we  apply  the  simple 
tests  of  common  experience  and  common 
knowledge,  and  if  they  cannot  bear  those  tests 
we  reject  them  as  fancies. 

It  is  not  impossible,  it  is  not  usually  diffi- 
cult, to  distinguish  truth  from  error.  There  is 
practically  no  dispute  among  men  as  to  the 
qualities  of  things  and  the  forces  of  nature. 
There  are  no  men  who  contend  that  water  is 
dry  or  that  fire  is  cold.  No  persons  dispute 
the  seasons  or  the  law  of  gravitation,  or  the 
general  laws  of  cause  and  effect  in  relation  to 
present  events.  We  all  see  wonderful  recover- 
ies from  disease,  and  are  prepared  for  very  re- 
markable manifestations  of  the  recuperative 
powers  of  the  body  and  soul,  but  none  of 
us  believe  in  any  story  of  the  resurrection  of  a 
dead  man  or  woman  in  modern  times.  It  is 
entirely  reasonable,  and  it  is  the  only  course 
that  is  reasonable,  to  reject  any  story  in  the 
gospels  that  you  would  reject  if  it  were  found 
elsewhere  in  reference  to  the  same  age  and 
country.  What  you  would  not  believe  in  Ben 
Hur  on  the  authority  of  General  Lew  Wallace, 
it  is  not  reasonable  to  believe  in  the  gospel  on 
the  authority  of  Matthew  or  John,  for  they,  too, 


8         THE  CARPENTER   PROPHET 

wrote  with  the  story-teller's  art  and  bias,  and 
liability  to  error  The  truth  is,  our  imagina- 
tion is  misled  by  the  remoteness  of  time  and 
place,  for  it  is  easy  to  believe  almost  anything 
of  unknown  countries  and  ancient  heroes. 
Times  [and  countries  do  actually  differ  so 
much  that  credulity  in  reference  to  the  char- 
acteristics of  foreign  countries  and  men  is 
quite  natural,  but  while  we  are  prepared  for 
very  strange  stories  if  told  by  reputable  wit- 
nesses, as  to  the  diet  or  clothing,  the  height,  or 
the  strength,  or  the  skill,  the  cruelty  or  gentle- 
ness, the  treachery  or  the  honor,  of  a  newly 
discovered  race,  we  should  require  vastly 
stronger  testimony  than  that  which  supports 
the  account  of  the  raising  of  Lazarus  before  we 
should  believe  a  similar  narrative  if  it  dealt 
with  a  recent  occurrence  in  any  country  what- 
ever. There  are  some  laws  to  which  we  all 
think  that  there  are  no  present  exceptions, 
and,  but  for  the  overpowering  influence  of 
early  teaching  which  often  paralyzes  the  mind 
and  makes  it  absolutely  incapable  of  free  and 
rational  action  in  reference  to  some  subjects, 
we  should  at  once  pronounce  many  Biblical 
narratives  as  false,  which  we  now  under  the 
mesmeric  influence  of  special  education  re- 
ceive as  true. 


THE   GOSPELS  9 

Protestantism  is  happily  rid  of  many  of  the 
beliefs  and  superstitions  of  Roman  Cathol- 
icism. It  has  no  holy  relics,  no  miracle- 
working  bones  of  saints,  no  winking  Madonnas, 
no  doctrine  of  transubstantiation,  but  it  is  still 
bound  to  a  book  full  of  untenable  legends.  All 
its  efforts  to  exhort  Christians  to  righteous- 
ness, to  educate  young  people  to  truth,  to  ex- 
tend Christianity  among  the  heathen,  all  its 
useful  activities  of  every  kind  are  thwarted 
and  impeded  by  this  load  of  past  ignorance 
and  superstition,  this  mass  of  once  believed 
but  now  incredible  stories  about  angels  and 
devils  and  prodigies. 

Well  may  the  church  pray,  as  did  Paul  in 
his  agony,  to  be  delivered  from  this  dead 
body.  But  true  prayer  must  be  supplemented 
by  faithful  and  intelligent  work.  The  gospels 
themselves  contain  the  principles  by  which  the 
church  must  work  out  its  redemption.  They 
assert  the  supremacy  of  the  reason  and  con- 
science over  law  and  tradition.  The  true 
believer  in  the  gospel  believes  in  the  mutability 
of  its  form  as  the  true  believer  in  the  cloud 
knows  that  it  is  forever  changing  and  yet  is  in- 
destructible. Our  life  is  a  vapor.  The  world 
is  a  cloud.  All  our  formulas  of  knowl- 
edge shall   vanish  away.     The  gospels   are  a 


lo       THE  CARPENTER   PROPHET 

transient  record  of  a  sublime  manifestation 
of  the  exhaustless  wisdom  and  goodness  of 
God. 

The  foundation  for  all  the  more  extreme 
theories  about  the  person  of  Christ  is  the  fourth 
gospel.  Rev,  Joseph  H.  Crooker,  a  specialist 
in  this  field  of  knowledge,  in  his  work  on  The 
New  Bible  and  Its  Uses  says:  "Of  those  who 
have  contributed  important  articles  to  the  dis- 
cussion from  about  1880  to  1890,  about  two  to 
one  reject  the  Johannine  authorship  of  the  gos- 
pel in  its  present  shape — that  is  to  say,  while 
forty  years  ago  great  scholars  were  four  to  one 
in  favor  of,  they  are  now  two  to  one  against, 
the  claim  that  the  apostle  John  wrote  this  gos- 
pel as  we  have  it.  Again  one-half  of  those  on 
the  conservative  side  to-day  admit  the  exist- 
ence of  a  dogmatic  intent  and  an  ideal  element 
in  this  gospel,  so  that  we  do  not  have  the 
thought  of  Jesus  in  his  exact  words,  but  only 
in  substance." 

Some  light  is  thrown  upon  these  opinions  in 
regard  to  the  work  which  goes  under  the  name 
of  John  by  a  general  statement  which  is  taken 
from  the  article  on  the  gospels  in  the  ninth 
edition  of  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica.  The 
writer  says:  "A  work  of  this  kind,  notwith- 
standing the  presence  of  historical  elements, 


THE   GOSPELS  ii 

seems  rather  to  deserve  to  be  called  a  poem, 
or  a  drama,  than  a  biography." 

In  all  scientific  investigations  the  necessary 
basis  is  a  belief  in  the  uniformity  of  physical 
law,  and  similarly  in  all  historical  research 
the  one  trustworthy  and  indispensable  clue  is 
the  essential  oneness  of  the  human  mind  and 
the  similarity  of  its  products  to  each  other. 
The  so-called  gospel  of  John  is  a  poem  of 
the  same  nature,  though  of  a  higher  order, 
as  Browning's  A  Death  in  the  Desert.  The  gos- 
pel does  for  Jesus  what  Browning  attempts  to 
do  for  John,  interprets  his  ideas  and  speaks 
dramatically  through  his  mouth.  And  re- 
garded in  this  manner,  what  a  sublime  and 
noble  work  it  is!  Its  three  chief  ideas  are  ex- 
pressed by  the  words,  life,  light  and  love. 
Jesus  is  represented  as  the  bread  of  life,  the 
water  of  life,  as  the  resurrection  and  the  life. 
He  is  the  light  of  the  world.  Above  all  he  is 
the  revealer  of  the  Father's  love.  The  gospel 
is  condensed  into  three  short  words,  "God  is 
love  "  The  fourth  gospel  reaches  its  climax  of 
power  and  beauty  in  the  chapter  beginning, 
"Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled."  That  chapter 
is  the  theodicy  of  Jesus.  In  every  age  men 
have  wondered  how  it  is  that  a  God  of  infinite 
wisdom  and  power  should  permit  such  sin  and 


12       THE   CARPENTER   PROPHET 

suffering  as  we  see  in  the  world,  and  such  an 
awful  tragedy  as  death  to  terminate  human 
life.  Yet  God  vindicates  himself  in  every 
human  heart.  We  all  live  in  some  measure  of 
faith  and  hope,  and  in  almost  every  genera- 
tion some  devout  seer  tries  to  pierce  the 
clouds  and  darkness  that  are  round  about  God 
and  give  us  a  clearer  vision  of  his  goodness  and 
his  glory. 

Jesus  had  just  told  his  disciples  that  his  death 
was  very  near.  His  heart  had  overflowed  with 
tenderness.  He  had  called  them  his  "little 
children,"  or,  as  the  diminutive  might  be  ren- 
dered, his  dear  children,  and  had  told  them 
that  if  they  wanted  to  be  true  to  him  and  repre- 
sent him  rightly  to  the  world  they  should  love 
one  another. — Don't  be  afraid  of  death,  and 
don't  be  troubled  on  my  account.  "In  my 
Father's  house  are  many  mansions.  ...  I  go 
to  prepare  a  place  for  you."  .  .  .  Then  said 
Philip,  "Lord,  show  us  the  Father  and  it 
suflficeth  us."  His  entreaty  means.  Show  us 
that  God  is  really  a  Father  and  not  a  stern  and 
inexorable  Ruler. 

Jesus  answered  the  question  of  Philip  and  of 
us  all  by  saying  in  effect:  I  have  been  a  long 
time  with  you,  Philip,  and  don't  you  believe 
yet  that  I  love  you  as  I  love  myself,  and  would 


'    THE  GOSPELS  13 

guard  all  your  interests  as  I  would  my  own? 
Don't  you  know  me  well  enough  to  believe 
that  I  would  never  betray  or  deceive  you? 
Would  you  not  have  confidence  in  me  in  all 
circumstances?  If  you  could  trust  me,  trust 
your  Father  in  heaven,  for  all  human  goodness 
is  but  a  reflection  of  divine  goodness,  and 
if  you  believe  that  I  have  a  compassionate 
heart,  believe  that  God  has  one  also  and 
will  love  and  care  for  you  everywhere  and 
always. 

The  language  of  the  fourth  gospel  is  but  a 
more  dramatic  expression  of  what  Matthew 
records  in  the  words:  "What  man  is  there  of 
you,  whom  if  his  son  ask  bread,  will  he  give 
him  a  stone?  Or  if  he  ask  a  fish  will  he  give 
him  a  serpent?  If  ye  then,  being  evU,  know 
how  to  give  good  gifts  unto  your  children,  how 
much  more  shall  your  Father  which  is  in 
heaven  give  good  things  to  them  that  ask 
him?"  It  has  been  said  that  it  is  the  purpose 
of  the  fourth  gospel  not  only  to  show  us  "a 
God-like  Christ  but  a  Christ-like  God." 

The  spirit  of  God  lighteth  every  one  that 
Cometh  into  the  world-  All  parents,  at  least 
all  mothers,  are  an  earthly  providence.  God 
has  made  of  one  blood  all  races  of  men,  and 
wherever  a  little  head,  white  or  brown  or  black, 


14       THE    CARPENTER   PROPHET 

is  pillowed  upon  a  mother's  breast,  that  child 
has  a  glimpse  of  the  Love  that  sits  enthroned 
above  and  directs  all  other  forces  for  its  own 
beneficent  ends. 


CHAPTER    II 

THE   BIRTH    OF  JESUS 

There  is  a  natural  impulse  to  make  a  work  of 
art  as  perfect  as  possible.  In  a  biography  this 
impulse  leads  the  writer  to  heighten  the  vir- 
tues, to  conceal  the  defects  and  to  magnify  the 
achievements  of  his  subject.  This  tendency  is 
so  marked  as  to  have  obtained  the  name  of  the 
biographical  frenzy. 

The  hero's  birth  is  invested  with  portents, 
his  ancestry  is  made  as  illustrious  as  possible, 
his  future  greatness  is  prophesied  in  infancy, 
he  has  one  or  more  miraculous  escapes  from 
death,  and  he  early  displays  superior  wisdom. 
Materials  for  such  legends  are  abundant  in 
every  life,  for  every  child  shows  some  "inti- 
mations of  immortality,"  and  every  one 
brings  to  the  hearts  of  its  parents  a  new  sense 
of  the  mystery  and  divineness  of  human  life. 
No  child  is  commonplace  to  its  mother,  and  it 
ought  not  to  be  to  any  one,  for  the  growth  of 
a  child  in  wisdom  and  stature  is  the  most  mar= 
velous  thing  in  all  this  world  of  marvels. 

The  story  of  the  massacre  of  all  the  children 
15 


i6       THE   CARPENTER    PROPHET 

in  Bethlehem  and  the  vicinity  in  order  to 
ensure  the  death  of  Jesus  is  not  found  in 
secular  history  or  in  any  gospel  but  that  of 
Matthew,  and  is  in  all  probability  due  to  the 
myth-making  impulse.  It  seems  natural  to 
the  biographers  of  Jesus  that  he,  the  Son  of 
Man,  the  typical  Israelite,  should  in  all  things 
"be  like  unto  his  brethren"  and  should  repre- 
sent in  his  own  person  the  history  of  his  race, 
and  therefore  as  the  Israelites  had  suffered 
captivity  in  Egypt  and  their  male  children 
had  been  killed  by  their  jealous  rulers,  Jesus 
was  made  to  flee  thither  for  safety  and  remain 
there  a  virtual  prisoner  till  the  death  of  Herod 
in  order,  as  Matthew  himself  asserts,  that  the 
prophecy  of  Hosea  regarding  him  might  be 
fulfilled.  What  Hosea  says  is  not,  however,  a 
prophecy  but  a  statement  of  fact,  and  the 
actual  reason  for  the  account  in  the  gospel  is 
one  of  dramatic  fitness. 

The  doctrine  of  the  immaculate  conception 
of  Jesus  by  the  Holy  Spirit  is  a  figurative  way 
of  expressing  one  of  the  most  important  of  all 
truths,  viz,  that  a  pure  birth  is  needful  to  a 
healthful  life.  The  children  of  the  diseased 
are  themselves  diseased,  the  offspring  of  the 
lustful  are  impure;  to  be  ill-born  is  the  greatest 
of  misfortunes,  as  to  be  well-born  is  the  richest 


THE   BIRTH  OF  JESUS  17 

of  blessings.  In  all  the  gospel  story  there  is 
nothing  so  intrinsically  rational  as  that  the 
purest  and  noblest  of  men  was  the  offspring  of 
pure  and  deep  affection,  and  this  I  conceive  to 
be  the  meaning  of  the  boldly  figurative  lan- 
guage employed. 

The  belief  that  the  fate  of  men  is  controlled 
by  the  stars  and  may  be  read  in  them  is  very 
ancient  and  very  natural  to  a  pastoral  nation, 
such  as  the  Jews  originally  were.  Shepherds 
living  under  the  open  sky  and  constantly  see- 
ing and  feeling  the  influence  of  sun  and  moon 
could  not  but  think  that  the  countless  lesser 
but  still  glorious  orbs  that  stud  the  heavens 
had  some  power  over  the  earth  beneath  them. 
The  movement  of  the  two  larger  bodies  pro- 
duces great  effects.  It  was  natural  to  con- 
clude that  the  more  intricate  movements  of 
the  smaller  bodies  should  produce  correspond- 
ingly intricate  and  minute  results.  The  sun 
and  moon  were  universal  lords,  the  planets 
were  believed  to  preside  over  the  destinies  of 
single  persons  and  to  foretell  particular  events. 
Language,  the  best  history  of  a  race,  because 
the  one  unconsciously  written  by  the  whole 
people,  still  shows  many  traces  of  these  primi- 
tive beliefs.  Men  "bless  their  stars"  for  good 
fortune  and  say  that  an  enterprise  that  turns 


i8       THE   CARPENTER   PROPHET 

out  badly  was  ill-starred.  Mirthful  men  are 
still  called  jovial,  as  if  born  when  Jove  was  in 
the  ascendant;  sad  men,  saturnine;  fickle  ones, 
mercurial;  and  mad  men,  lunatics.  Astrolo- 
gers developed  these  beliefs  into  elaborate  sys- 
tems, and  poets  embellished  them  with  many 
graceful  details. 

It  was  inevitable  that  men  should  think  that 
the  birth  of  so  remarkable  a  prophet  as  Jesus 
had  been  predicted.  Accordingly  wise  men 
from  the  east,  the  special  home  of  astrology, 
are  represented  as  seeing  his  star  and  coming 
to  worship  him.  In  the  same  spirit  of  poetic 
adoration  the  church  later  changed  "the  star- 
led  wizards,"  the  simple  "wise  men"  of  Mat- 
thew into  three  kings  of  different  nations  and 
ages,  that  youth  in  the  person  of  one,  man- 
hood in  that  of  another,  and  age  in  that  of  the 
third,  might  do  honor  to  the  infant  Redeemer. 

The  gospel  of  Matthew  not  only  embellishes 
the  earlier  and  balder  account  of  Mark  with 
this  beautiful  story  of  the  devout  astrologers 
and  the  guiding  star,  but  it  also  provides  Jesus 
with  a  line  of  noble  ancestors.  The  ancestry 
differs  in  many  respects  from  the  genealogy 
given  in  Luke,  but  both  Matthew  and  Luke 
agree  in  tracing  the  descent  of  Jesus  through 
his  father  Joseph.     This  is  evident  testimony 


THE    BIRTH   OF  JESUS  19 

that  in  the  earlier  historic  period  there  was  no 
doubt  that  Jesus  was  the  son  of  Joseph,  since 
otherwise  Joseph's  descent  would  have  been 
altogether  unimportant.  The  last  eight  verses 
of  the  first  chapter  of  Matthew  are  a  later  and 
awkward  addition,  and  in  Luke  there  is  a  still 
clumsier  modification  of  the  original  narrative, 
as  the  writer  has  contented  himself  with  aljrief 
interpolation,  making  verse  23  of  chapter  3 
read,  "Jesus  began  to  be  about  thirty  years  of 
age,  being  (as  was  supposed)  the  son  of 
Joseph." 

In  other  portions  of  his  narrative  of  the 
birth  of  Jesus,  Luke  goes  as  far  beyond  Mat- 
thew as  Matthew  had  exceeded  Mark,  for  while 
Matthew  is  content  with  signs  in  the  sky  and 
warnings  sent  in  dreams,  Luke  makes  the 
angel  Gabriel  descend  and  announce  to  Mary 
that  she  should  be  the  mother  of  the  "Son  of 
God."  Gabriel  is  also  sent  to  make  an  an- 
nouncement to  Zacharias  of  the  birth  of  his 
son  John. 

Matthew,  in  his  account  of  the  preaching  of 
Jesus  in  the  synagogue  at  Nazareth,  says  that 
those  who  heard  him  "were  astonished  and 
said.  Whence  hath  this  man  this  wisdom,  and 
these  mighty  works?  Is  not  this  the  carpen- 
ter's son?    is  not  his  mother  called  Mary?   and 


20       THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

his  brethren  James  and  Joses  and  Simon  and 
Judas?  and  his  sisters  are  they  not  all  with  us?" 
This  account  is  clear  enough  as  to  the  common 
opinion  of  the  people  of  Nazareth,  but  it  may 
be  said  that  Mary  kept  her  great  secret  from 
strangers  and  "pondered  it  in  her  heart." 

It  appears,  however,  more  probable  from 
Luke's  narrative  that  she  habitually  spoke  of 
Joseph  as  the  father  of  Jesus,  for  on  the 
memorable  occasion  when  he  had  been  lost 
during  the  visit  to  Jerusalem  at  twelve  years  of 
age,  when  a  mother's  joy  at  his  recovery  would 
have  surprised  her  out  of  merely  conventional 
language,  she  associates  Joseph  with  herself 
in  the  most  absolute  manner,  saying,  "Son, 
why  hast  thou  thus  dealt  with  us?  behold 
thy  father  and  I  have  sought  thee  sorrow- 
»ng. 

The  gospel  of  John,  which  was  written  much 
later  than  the  narratives  of  Matthew,  Mark  and 
Luke,  presents  an  entirely  different  phase  of 
Christian  thought.  The  simple  and  more  poetic 
early  legends  are  discarded  and  the  language 
of  Gnostic  philosophy  is  employed.  There  is 
so  much  sin  and  suffering  in  the  world  that  the 
Gnostic  philosophers  thought  that  the  world 
could  not  have  been  made  by  a  being  of  infi- 
nite power    and  goodness,   such  as  they  con- 


THE  BIRTH  OP  JESUS  21 

ceived  the  supreme  divinity  to  be,  and  so  they 
imagined  that  it  had  been  made  by  one  of  the 
many  created  spirits  or  -^ons  who  surrounded 
his  throne.  The  name  of  some  of  the  ^ons 
were  Life^  Lights  and  Reason  or  Wisdom^  or  the 
Word;  and  John  in  the  opening  of  his  gospel, 
ignoring  all  human  genealogies  and  accessory 
honors,  identifies  Jesus  with  the  Word,  the 
Life  and  the  Light.  At  the  same  time  he 
antagonizes  the  Gnostic  philosophy  and  main- 
tains the  unity  of  the  Godhead  by  declaring 
that  these  names  denote  attributes  of  the 
divine  mind  and  have  no  existence  apart  from 
it.  In  regard  to  the  gospel  of  John  it  may  be 
said  that  it  maintains  throughout  the  same 
height  of  mystical  exaltation.  It  is  written 
with  the  express  object  of  enforcing  belief  in 
Jesus  as  the  Son  of  God  and  accordingly  the 
manifestations  of  his  power,  though  fewer,  are 
more  remarkable.  Matthew  reports  twenty, 
Mark  eighteen,  Luke  twenty-one,  and  John 
only  eight  miracles.  The  first  three  gospels 
report  the  cure  of  blind  men,  but  it  is  only  the 
gospel  of  John  that  tells  of  the  restoration  of 
sight  to  one  who  was  born  blind.  Three  gos- 
pels tell  of  the  raising  of  the  daughter  of  Jairus 
who  had  died  just  before  Jesus  reached  the 
house,  but  it  is  only  John's  gospel  that  narrates 


22        THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

the  resurrection  of  Lazarus  after  he  had  been 
dead  four  days. 

To  recapitulate  and  conclude  this  chapter: 
Mark  gives  no  account  of  the  birth  of  Jesus, 
Matthew  and  Luke  surround  it  with  prodigies, 
provide  him  with  a  royal  pedigree  and  invent 
a  story  by  which  he  is  born  at  Bethlehem,  the 
city  of  his  alleged  ancestor  David.  It  is  not 
necessary  to  swell  this  narrative  by  any  discus- 
sion of  the  truth  of  the  account  of  the  journey 
of  Joseph  and  Mary  to  Bethlehem.  As  a  state- 
ment of  fact  it  must  stand  or  fall  with  the  nar- 
rative of  miraculous  events  in  which  it  is 
embedded.  But,  whatever  may  be  said  of  its 
literal  truth,  the  story  is  poetically  both  true 
and  beautiful. 

At  the  Reformation,  Protestantism  cut  down 
the  ranker  growth  of  superstition,  but  it  did 
not  destroy  the  roots.  In  leaving  the  legends 
about  the  birth  and  miracles  of  Jesus  it  retains 
the  germs  of  every  other  wild  exaggeration  of 
the  Acta  Sanctorum.  The  life  of  Jesus  in  the 
gospels  implies  a  similar  life  of  the  Blessed 
Virgin  Mary  and  that  a  legend  of  Mary's 
mother,  Saint  Anne. 


CHAPTER    III 

THE  BOYHOOD  OF  JESUS 

Jesus  must  have  been  a  pure,  gentle,  sym- 
pathetic and  thoughtful  boy.  As  he  grew  in 
stature  he  grew  also  "in  wisdom  and  favor 
with  God  and  man."  We  know  even  less  of 
his  boyhood  than  we  do  of  that  of  Shake- 
speare, for  there  is  but  one  recorded  incident 
that  is  worth  attention.  The  apocryphal  gos- 
pels, indeed,  are  full  of  pseudo  miracles. 
They  say  that  he  made  clay  sparrows  and  then 
gave  them  power  to  fly;  that  Judas,  his  school- 
mate, was  even  then  jealous  of  him,  called  him 
a  sorcerer  and  struck  him.  Jesus  then  prophe- 
sied that  the  side  struck  by  Judas  would  be 
pierced  by  a  spear  at  his  crucifixion.  His 
other  playmates  recognized  his  goodness  and 
greatness  and  foreshadowed  the  crown  of 
thorns  by  crowning  him  with  flowers.  He  em- 
barrassed the  teacher  of  the  village  school  by 
deep  questions,  and  when  the  perplexed  and 
angry  pedagogue  lifted  his  rod  to  strike  the 
precocious  child,  his  arm  was  paralyzed. 

The  one  recorded  incident  that  bears  the 
23 


24        THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

stamp  of  probability  is  that  of  the  visit  to  the 
temple  at  the  age  of  twelve. 

Some  time  or  other  Jesus  must  have  con- 
sciously surrendered  his  will  to  that  of  God. 
I  imagine  it  was  very  early  in  life,  for  at  twelve 
he  was  about  his  Father's  business  and  was 
growing  in  wisdom  and  in  favor  with  God  and 
man.  From  the  fact  that  nothing  is  said  about 
a  struggle  it  seems  reasonable  to  infer  that 
his  self-dedication  was  without  agony  and 
tumult. 

That  Jesus  should  early  feel  that  he  was  a 
"dedicated  spirit,"  and  that  his  was  to  be  a 
life  of  service  to  God  and  man  was  very  nat- 
ural. He  was  fed  on  the  noble  poetry  of 
Israel,  rendered  to  him  tenfold  more  sweet  and 
inspiring  in  that  he  first  heard  it  from  the  lips 
of  a  devoted  mother.  Mary  was  herself  a 
richly  gifted  poet,  as  is  shown  by  her  recorded 
poem,  the  Magnificat.  If  the  external  evidence 
that  it  is  actually  her  composition  is  not  in 
itself  sufficient,  it  is  confirmed  by  the  fact  that 
her  son  was  so  great  a  poet,  and  according  to 
the  common  law  of  heredity  he  derived  his 
mental  character  chiefly  from  his  mother. 
That  one  so  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  Old  Tes- 
tament poetry  that  approaching  maternity  led 
her  to  express  her  joy  in  a  lofty  psalm  should 


THE   BOYHOOD  OF  JESUS  25 

soothe  her  firstborn  to  slumber  with  all  the  ten- 
der, all  the  beautiful,  and  all  the  sublime  pas- 
sages of  the  poetry  of  her  people,  is  self-evi- 
dent. The  lullabies  of  the  infant  Jesus  were  of 
the  overshadowing  wings  and  the  everlasting 
arms  of  the  Lord  God  of  Israel.  The  last 
sound  that  fell  upon  his  ears  before  the  com- 
ing of  "the  sweet  dream  softer  than  unbroken 
rest"  was  sometimes  perhaps  a  song  without 
words  or  the  absurd  little  rhymes,  the  "baby 
talk"  into  which  affection  pours  a  wealth  of 
beauty  and  meaning,  but  oftener,  I  think,  it 
was  some  sublime  utterance  such  as:  "The 
Lord  is  thy  Keeper.  Behold  He  that  keepeth 
Israel  shall  neither  slumber  nor  sleep.  He 
giveth  his  beloved  sleep." 

The  faith  in  the  inherent  nobility  of  woman 
which  Jesus  always  exhibits  is  a  very  strong 
though  an  indirect  testimony  to  that  gentle 
and  long-suffering  mother,  to  whom  the  early 
and  mediaeval  church  accorded  honor  almost 
equal  to  that  which  it  gave  her  son. 

Next  to  the  influence  of  Mary  was  that  of 
Joseph.  I  imagine  that  he  was  a  grave.  God- 
fearing man.  Every  morning  before  work 
began  and  every  evening  when  the  day's  labor 
was  done,  the  father  gathered  his  family  about 
him  and  selected   "with  judicious  care"   some 


26       THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

portion  of  Scripture  for  reading  and  comment. 
Jesus  shows  so  intimate  an  acquaintance  with 
every  part  of  the  Old  Testament  that  it  is  most 
probable  that  he  learned  it  day  by  day  at  home 
and  was  not  merely  dependent  upon  the 
weekly  readings  at  the  synagogue. 

When  the  Scripture  had  been  read  in  this 
household  at  Nazareth,  they  probably  sang 
a  hymn  together,  for  the  habits  formed  in 
childhood  are  persistent,  and  we  read  that  Jesus 
not  only  prayed  but  sang  with  his  disciples  on 
the  last  night  of  his  life,  the  night  on  which 
he  was  betrayed.  I  cannot  think  that  these 
daily  communings  ended  without  prayer. 

Jesus  was  the  eldest  child  and  therefore  had 
the  opportunity  of  watching  the  infancy  of  his 
four  brothers  and  of  his  sisters.  He  loved 
children.  Their  innocence  and  trustfulness 
attracted  him,  and  in  his  later  teaching  he 
often  held  them  up  for  imitation.  The  king- 
dom of  heaven,  he  declares,  is  only  for  those 
who  have  the  spirit  of  children. 

Then  there  was  the  discipline  of  daily  work. 
He  learned  industry  and  economy  so  thor- 
oughly in  that  well-ordered  household  that  they 
became  instinctive  and  a  second  nature.  "I 
must  work  the  work  of  him  that  sent  me,  while 
it  is  day;    for  the  night  cometh  when  no  man 


THE  BOYHOOD  OF  JESUS  27 

can  work,"  is  natural  language  for  the  son  of 
a  faithful  carpenter. 

He  learned  from  many  a  precept  in  the  Book 
of  Proverbs  and  from  the  example  of  father 
and  mother  that  idleness  is  a  sin  and  a  re- 
proach. Doubtless  the  lesson  of  thrift  was 
also  impressed  with  all  the  thoroughness  with 
which  it  is  learned  in  a  poor  and  conscientious 
Scotch  or  New  England  household.  In  order 
that  the  income  of  a  village  carpenter  might 
suffice  for  the  needs  of  a  large  family  nothing 
must  be  wasted.  Whatever  may  be  thought  of 
the  miracle  of  the  loaves  and  fishes,  "Gather 
up  the  fragments  that  nothing  be  lost,"  is  not 
only  pious  and  sensible  language  but  exceed- 
ingly natural  to  one  who  in  childhood  had  felt 
poverty's  sharp  pinch  and  had  acquired  a 
horror  of  waste  as  one  of  the  great  causes  of 
poverty  and  distress. 

As  the  boy  grew  older  and  was  kept  more 
steadily  at  work  he  learned  to  prize  more  and 
more  the  blessed  weekly  rest  of  the  Sabbath. 
People  who  have  all  the  leisure  they  want 
every  day  do  not  know  what  a  beneficent 
provision  the  day  of  rest  is  to  those  who  toil 
steadily  from  sunrise  to  sunset  for  six  days  of 
every  week.  I  don't  wonder  that  Jesus  was 
indignant  at  a  ceremonialism  that  hedged  the 


28       THE  CARPENTER   PROPHET 

Sabbath  about  with  vexatious  restraints  and 
deprived  it  of  half  its  value.  "The  Sabbath," 
he  declared,  "was  made  for  man,"  Yet  he 
was  no  Sabbath  breaker.  He  did  not  waste 
the  precious  day  in  frivolity,  but  gained  from  it 
the  richest  refreshment  of  both  body  and  spirit. 
The  Sabbath  was  the  core  of  the  Jewish,  as  it 
is  of  the  Christian,  religion.  In  fact  no  reli- 
gion can  permeate  the  mind  and  heart  of  a 
people  without  systematic  instruction,  and 
systematic  instruction  is  impossible  without 
days  appointed  for  the  purpose. 

Jesus  was  doubtless  as  regularly  in  his  place 
in  the  synagogue  as  the  elders  or  "the  min- 
ister," and  the  day  was  to  him  one  of  high 
communion  with  his  Heavenly  Father.  I 
imagine  him  walking  with  father  and  mother 
to  the  place  of  prayer  and  worship,  repeating 
in  his  heart,  "I  was  glad  when  they  said  unto 
me,  Let  us  go  unto  the  house  of  the  Lord,"  I 
have  no  doubt  he  had  visions  of  the  presence 
of  God  more  real  and  vivid  than  those  of  Jacob 
at  Bethel,  and  that  to  him  the  glory  of  the 
Lord  filled  the  plain  white  walls  more  than  to 
others  it  filled  the  temple  of  Solomon.  It  is 
not  the  place  or  the  mode  of  worship  that 
brings  the  sense  of  God's  presence  but  the 
spirit     pf     the    worshiper.        God     is     found 


THE  BOYHOOD  OP  JESUS  29 

by  those  who  seek  him  in  spirit  and  in 
truth. 

Perhaps  they  had  no  great  orator  to  expound 
the  Law  in  the  little  synagogue  at  Nazareth. 
Perhaps  sometimes  to  an  undevout  and  unsym- 
pathetic attendant  the  service  seemed  dry  and 
formal,  but  to  the  heart  hungering  and  thirst- 
ing after  righteousness,  to  the  one  who  can 
truly  say  that  the  words  of  God's  mouth  are 
more  to  him  than  his  necessary  food,  every 
sincere  service,  however  poor  and  inartistic,  is 
a  benediction. 

To  worship  God  sincerely  anywhere  and  in 
any  manner  purifies  and  elevates  the  soul  of 
man,  but  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  the  Sab- 
bath services  at  Nazareth  were  more  than  ordi- 
narily spiritual  and  helpful.  It  is  impossible 
that  a  man  like  Joseph  should  not  have  an  in- 
fluence in  the  community.  The  Psalmist  prays, 
"Create  in  me  a  clean  heart  and  renew  a  right 
spirit  within  me.  Then  will  I  teach  transgress- 
ors thy  ways;  and  sinners  shall  be  converted 
unto  thee."  There  is  no  such  thing  as  soli- 
tary piety  or  solitary  wickedness.  Every  man 
is  a  source  of  good  or  evil  to  others,  and  no 
doubt  the  pious  Joseph  and  the  devout  Mary 
had  a  circle  of  like-minded  companions  with 
whom  they  took  "sweet  counsel."     The  office 


30       THE   CARPENTER   PROPHET 

of  Reader  and  Expounder  in  the  synagogue 
was  not  permanent,  but  was  assigned  from  time 
to  time  to  any  qualified  layman,  and  it  is  proba- 
ble that  Joseph  was  among  those  who  were 
appointed  to  it,  and  that  Jesus  often  heard  his 
father  speak  not  only  in  the  retirement  of  the 
home  but  also  with  the  greater  emphasis  and 
solemnity  which  the  presence  of  a  congrega- 
tion adds  to  words  of  prayer  and  exhortation. 
Indeed,  the  editor  of  the  Oxford  Sunday 
School  Teacher's  Bible,  basing  his  view  upon 
Luke  4:  16  supposes  that  Jesus  himself  held  the 
office  of  Sheliach,  or  Reader,  at  Nazareth,  and 
this  opinion  seems  the  more  reasonable  from 
the  fact  that  even  in  the  beginning  of  his 
itinerant  ministry  he  seems  to  have  had  the 
readiness  and  self-possession  in  public  speak- 
ing which  are  commonly  acquired  only  by  long 
practice.  We  are  not  told  when  Joseph  died, 
but  we  know  that  he  was  living  when  Jesus  was 
twelve,  and  even  if  the  good  man  passed  from 
earth  soon  after  this  time  there  is  no  doubt 
that  his  image  would  be  deeply  imprinted  on 
the  mind  of  his  susceptible  and  thoughtful  son. 
It  is  a  mistake  that  the  beautiful  unity  of  the 
Holy  Family,  as  it  at  least  partially  appears  in 
Catholic  art  and  devotion,  should  among 
Protestants   have   been    broken   by   the    false 


THE    BOYHOOD   OF  JESUS  31 

exaltation  of  the  son  and  the  inconsistent  and 
ungenerous  neglect  of  his  godly  parents.  Jesus, 
though  his  stage  of  action  has  been  conspic- 
uous beyond  that  of  all  other  persons,  was  in 
all  essential  elements  of  character  akin  to  the 
devout  and  faithful  father  and  mother  who 
shaped  his  character  in  that  humble  home  in 
the  little  village  among  the  hills  of  Galilee. 

The  records  of  the  life  of  Jesus  are  so 
meager  that  we  know  nothing  of  his  boyish 
friendships.  We  know  that  he  who  "loved 
Mary  and  Martha  and  Lazarus,"  and  who 
showed  such  special  marks  of  affection  to  John 
that  he  was  known  as  the  "beloved  disciple," 
must  have  been  of  a  tender  and  companionable 
disposition  and  have  sought  to  gain  from 
heaven  "its  choicest  gift,  a  friend." 


CHAPTER    IV 

THE   EARLY   MANHOOD   OF  JESUS 

The  reticence  of  his  biographers  has  doubt- 
less upon  the  whole  contributed  to  the  fame  of 
Jesus.  The  best  part  of  the  life  of  a  writer  and 
teacher  is  to  be  found  in  the  words  and  acts 
connected  with  his  calling  and  chief  work.  In 
everything  else  he  is  on  the  same  plane  as 
other  men  or  even  on  a  lower  one,  for  there  is 
in  Nature  a  stern  law  of  limitation  and  com- 
pensation by  which  the  greater  the  power  of 
one  sort  possessed  by  any  creature  the  less  its 
strength  of  other  kinds.  Bird  and  beast  are 
allotted  swiftness  or  strength  or  cunning,  but 
no  animal  combines  them  all  in  a  high  degree. 
Those  birds  that  have  developed  the  highest 
power  of  flight  by  constant  use  of  the  wings, 
when  necessity  brings  them  to  earth  are  sud- 
denly transformed  into  clumsy  and  ungainly 
creatures  that  have  all  but  lost  their  power  to 
walk.  And  every  specialist  among  men, 
whether  devoted  to  one  work  by  deliberate 
choice  and  training  or  set  apart  by  an  im- 
perious instinct,  must  pay  the  heavy  penalty 
32 


THE  EARLY  MANHOOD  OF  JESUS  33 

of  his  peculiar  greatness.  The  whole  force  of 
the  nature  goes  to  feed  the  favored  quality, 
and  everything  else  dwindles  away. 

In  all  probability,  therefore,  Jesus  was  not  a 
very  good  carpenter.  Industrious,  painstak- 
ing, conscientious,  he  must  have  been  in  all  his 
-work,  but  great  imaginative  and  emotional 
powers  are  very  rarely,  if  ever,  associated  with 
a  liking  or  an  aptitude  for  mechanical  details. 
The  pride  and  affections  are  not  centered 
there,  and  excellence  in  anything  is  never 
gained  except  by  single  and  perfect  devotion. 

But  whatever  the  quality  of  his  work  the  sig- 
nificant fact  remains  that  Jesus  was  a  carpenter, 
and  perhaps  no  mechanical  occupation  is  more 
favorable  to  the  development  of  the  intellec- 
tual and  the  moral  faculties. 

It  was  an  essentially  honest  occupation, 
one  in  which  every  penny  he  received  was 
earned  by  labor  that  benefited  both  himself 
and  his  employer.  The  carpenter  is  one  of  the 
earliest  and  most  essential  figures  of  civilized 
society.  His  occupation  is  honorable  and  use- 
ful. By  his  agency  the  dark  cave  in  which 
man  crouched  like  a  beast  is  transformed  into 
the  house  in  which  the  moral  virtues  may  de- 
velop and  the  home  be  created. 

I  am  glad  that  we  do  not  know  more  of  the 


34       THE   CARPENTER   PROPHET 

routine  portion  of  the  life  of  Jesus  than  we  do. 
I  am  glad  that  we  do  not  know  more  of 
Shakespeare,  for  the  unknown  part  of  his  life 
has  perished  only  because  it  was  common- 
place, and  if  the  frivolous  details  of  his  phys- 
ical life  had  been  forced  upon  us  they  would 
have  obscured  the  picture  of  that  sublime  in- 
tellectual activity  which  is  alone  important  to 
the  world. 

Indeed  I  think  it  providential  and  a  great 
benefit  to  the  world  that  most  of  the  details  of 
the  life  of  Jesus  have  been  lost.  I  do  not 
mean  to  insinuate,  for  I  do  not  believe,  that 
there  was  anything  discreditable  and  unworthy 
in  that  great  life.  I  only  mean  that  the  flesh, 
even  in  its  fairest  form,  is  a  veil  which  hides 
and  obscures  the  purity  and  greatness  of  the 
spirit,  and  the  spirit  of  Jesus  was  not  only 
superior  to  its  earthly  tabernacle  but  superior 
to  any  conception  of  his  greatness  that  any 
other  mind  has  been  able  to  form.  Only  a 
mind  and  heart  in  all  respects  like  his  own 
could  do  him  full  justice. 

No  doubt  Jesus  was  intensely  susceptible  to 
all  the  beauties  of  the  favored  part  of  the  world 
in  which  he  lived.  The  mountains  of  Galilee 
were  his  friends.  "He  drank  his  fill  from  the 
bare  bosom  of  nature."     It  is  very  likely  that 


THE  EARLY  MANHOOD  OF  JESUS    35 

he  roamed  from  place  to  place  in  the  ordinary 
course  of  his  trade,  as  it  is  still  the  custom  in 
Syria  for  a  carpenter  to  do,  just  as  in  earlier 
days  in  New  England  the  tailor  and  the  shoe- 
maker used  to  come  round  every  year  and  work 
for  a  household  until  its  wants  were  supplied. 
As  Jesus  wandered  among  these  simple  moun- 
taineers he  found  a  primitive  and  noble  race 
the  recollection  of  whose  sturdy  and  handsome 
bodies,  and  of  their  simple,  generous  natures 
was  often  a  refreshment  to  him  when  he  came 
into  contact  in  later  years  in  Judea  with  men 
of  an  inferior  physical  and  moral  type. 

In  after  years,  when  he  was  exhausted  by  the 
pressure  of  throngs  of  people,  by  the  impor- 
tunities of  the  sick  and  needy,  and  chafed 
by  controversy,  he  gathered  strength  again  by 
prayer  upon  his  beloved  mountains  and 
beneath  the  solemn  stars  which  spoke  to  him 
of  the  vastness  of  his  Father's  domain. 

It  is  not  unlikely  that  his  intense  patriotism 
led  him  also  to  make  voluntary  excursions  to 
the  more  accessible  historic  scenes.  I  think 
he  must  have  stood  among  the  cedars  of 
Lebanon  and  trodden  the  grass  of  Hermon 
fresh  with  its  morning  dew.  Perhaps  Jesus 
never  extended  his  travels  to  southern  Arabia 
and   saw  the   frowning  mass  of  granite  from 


36        THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

which  amid  thunderings  and  lightnings  the 
Law  was  given  to  Israel  by  the  hand  of  Moses, 
but  Mount  Carmel,  the  scene  of  the  triumph  of 
Elijah,  the  next  in  order  of  might  among  his 
forerunners,  was  little  more  than  a  day's  walk 
distant  from  Nazareth,  and  to  it  he  must  often 
have  gone,  not  drawn  merely  by  the  charms  of 
the  mountain  and  its  memories,  but  that  from 
its  summit  he  might  gaze  upon  the  broad  and 
mysterious  expanse  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea. 
But  however  widely  he  may  have  traveled, 
Nazareth  was  his  home,  and  its  picturesque 
scenes  were  the  most  familiar  and  the  dearest 
to  his  heart. 

Nazareth  nestles  in  one  of  those  vales 

"Where  deep  and  low  the  hamlets  lie 
Beneath  their  little  patch  of  sky 
And  little  lot  of  stars," 

but  in  all  probability  Jesus  walked  almost 
daily  to  "the  brow  of  the  hill  whereon  the  city 
was  built"  and  drank  in  with  ecstasy  the  wide 
sweep  of  landscape  commanded  by  it. 

National  ideas  do  much  to  form  the  char- 
acter of  an  ambitious  youth.  No  race  however 
timid  and  feeble  is  content  with  servitude,  but 
all  men  feel  instinctively  that  freedom  is  their 
right  and  long  to  obtain  deliverance  from  a 
foreign  yoke. 


THE  EARLY  MANHOOD  OF  JESUS  37 

In  any  examination  of  the  life  of  Jesus  it 
must  never  be  forgotten  that  he  belonged  to 
one  of  the  greatest  races  in  human  history. 
No  other  highly  developed  race  has  main- 
tained a  well-defined  national  life  for  so  many 
centuries,  or  has  produced  such  a  constant  and 
brilliant  succession  of  men  of  intellect  and 
moral  distinction.  Even  the  laurels  of  the 
Greek  fade  when  placed  in  comparison  with 
the  aureole  that  plays  about  the  head  of  the 
Jew.  Israel  has  had  a  line  of  prophets  who  in 
imaginative  power,  in  moral  purity,  in  unselfish 
devotion,  and  in  tenacity  of  purpose  far  sur- 
pass those  of  any  other  nation.  It  was  there- 
fore to  be  expected,  in  accordance  with  the 
analogies  everywhere  to  be  observed  in  nature, 
that  the  supreme  spiritual  leader  of  mankind 
should  spring  from  the  race  that  has  shown 
pre-eminent  genius  for  religion. 

The  largest  and  finest  apples  are  in  the  most 
highly  cultivated  orchard,  the  fairest  and  most 
fragrant  flowers  are  in  the  best  kept  garden,  the 
tallest  tree  stands  in  the  mightiest  forest,  the 
greenest  valley  is  amid  the  most  verdant  land- 
scape, the  highest  mountain  peak  is  in  the 
highest  mountain  range,  the  greatest  tidal  wave 
occurs  in  the  broadest  and  deepest  ocean,  and 
the  brightest  stars  are  clustered  into  the  most 


38        THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

splendid  constellations.  It  is  impossible  that 
a  great  man  should  spring  from  an  inferior 
race,  for  every  man  in  order  to  be  great  needs 
the  momentum  of  example  and  sympathy. 

As  Jesus  grew  up  to  manhood  he  had  a  pas- 
sionate and  absorbing  desire  "to  make  some 
useful  plan  or  book  or  sing  some  song"  for 
Israel's  sake,  but  alas!  the  ordinary  official 
pathway  to  influence  was  barred  to  him.  There 
was  no  profession  but  that  of  the  Scribe,  and 
the  hair-splitting  casuistry  of  these  Pharisaic 
teachers,  their  elaborate  ceremonialism,  their 
solicitude  about  every  trifle  and  above  all  their 
ineffectiveness  in  enforcing  the  "weightier 
matters  of  the  law,  justice  and  judgment"  were 
utterly  repugnant  to  him.  Some  of  these  doc- 
tors of  the  law  forbade  a  man  to  wear  a  newly- 
finished  garment  on  the  Sabbath  lest  a  needle 
should  be  still  sticking  in  it  and  he  should 
then  bear  a  burden  on  the  holy  day.  They 
forbade  him  to  walk  in  tall  ripe  grass  on  the 
seventh  day  lest  he  should  knock  out  the  seeds 
and  thus  thresh  grain  on  the  Sabbath.  They 
regarded  it  as  of  such  importance  that  a  man 
should  always  wash  his  hands  before  eating 
that  they  venerated  as  a  martyr  a  man  who 
starved  to  death  rather  than  violate  the  rule, 
although  no  water  were  accessible. 


THE  EARLY  MANHOOD  OF  JESUS    39 

The  Jewish  church  in  fact,  though  it  had 
reached  its  maximum  of  external  activity  and 
splendor,  was  exhausted  and  decaying.  It 
was  like  an  overgrown  tree  most  of  whose  life 
has  gone  to  its  extremities.  Its  trunk  was 
huge  and  majestic,  its  branches  were  numer- 
ous, its  leaves  were  green  and  full,  and  appar- 
ently it  was  the  pride  of  the  forest,  yet  it  was 
hollow  at  the  heart  and  the  giant  was  in 
reality  ready  to  be  uprooted  by  the  first  blast 
of  a  storm. 

Jesus  could  not  take  his  credentials  and  be- 
come a  teacher  in  a  church  whose  doctrines 
were  false,  whose  ceremonies  were  frivolous, 
whose  general  activity  was  misdirected.  He 
shrank  from  a  violent  break  with  the  existing 
order  of  things,  and  yet  he  could  find  no  place 
for  himself  in  it.  One  thing  he  had  deter- 
mined, he  would  either  speak  what  he  believed 
to  be  true  or  be  silent  as  a  public  teacher.  He 
chafed  at  the  obscurity  and  inactivity  of  his 
life,  for  "he  was  tempted  in  all  points  as  we 
are,"  yet  he  saw  no  opening  for  any  more  con- 
spicuous and  useful  career.  But  he  was  true 
to  his  ideals. 

While  he  was  thus  "nourishing  a  youth  sub- 
lime" and  silently  preparing  himself,  Judea 
was  agitated  by  a  movement  whose  influence 


40       THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

soon  spread  to  Galilee  and  other  outlying  prov- 
inces. A  new  prophet  had  arisen  of  the  spirit 
and  power  of  Elijah.  The  whole  nation  had 
long  been  expecting  deliverance  from  the 
Roman  yoke  by  some  national  hero  anointed 
and  commissioned  of  God  for  that  purpose 
and  when  John  the  Baptist  issued  from  the 
seclusion  in  which  his  life  had  been  spent  and 
began  to  preach,  "Repent,  for  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  is  at  hand,"  he  found  crowds  of  eager 
listeners  and  among  them  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 


CHAPTER   V 

THE    BAPTISM    AND   TEMPTATION 

It  WAS  no  idle  curiosity  that  led  Jesus  to 
make  the  long  and  toilsome  journey. from 
Nazareth  to  the  southern  part  of  Judea. 
John's  preaching,  as  reported,  accorded 
closely  with  the  hopes  and  half-formed  pur- 
poses that  had  long  filled  the  mind  of  Jesus, 
and  so,  doubtless  feeling  that  the  step  was  a 
momentous  one  and  that  he  might  be  breaking 
with  his  old  life  forever,  Jesus  determined  to 
see  and  hear  for  himself  and,  if  on  a  nearer 
view  he  approved  of  John's  methods,  to  attach 
himself  to  the  movement  begun  by  the  Baptist. 

John  was  a  simple-minded  and  unlearned 
man  who  had  spent  most  of  his  life  as  a  her- 
mit; and,  though  he  was  an  intense  patriot  and 
could  not  refrain  from  rebuking  the  wickedness 
of  the  "generation  of  vipers"  which  had 
caused  God  in  his  anger  to  subject  his  people 
to  the  yoke  of  the  Romans,  yet  he  did  not  feel 
that  he  was  able,  like  another  Gideon  or  Judas 
Maccabaeus,  to  break  that  hated  yoke  and 
become  the  deliverer  of  his  nation.  He  was 
41 


42        THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

not  a  warrior  or  a  man  of  action  but  a  voice 
only,  and  as  a  voice  he  cried,  "Repent,  for  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand."  He  knew 
that  one  far  mightier  than  himself  was  needed 
to  purge  away  the  elaborate  and  imposing,  yet 
essentially  empty,  ceremonialism  into  which 
Judaism  had  degenerated,  and  especially  that 
a  wisdom  and  strength  far  beyond  his  own 
were  needed  to  check  the  greed,  luxury,  and 
ambition  that  were  demoralizing  the  nation. 
The  inward  voice  which  had  commanded  him 
to  preach  had  assured  him  that  his  efforts 
should  not  be  in  vain,  but  that  the  work  he  was 
not  able  to  complete  should  be  taken  up  by 
some  mightier  successor  and  carried  forward 
in  power.  John  had  looked  with  eager  expec- 
tation at  every  man  of  all  the  multitudes  of 
those  who  presented  themselves  for  his  bap- 
tism for  one  who  seemed  likely  to  be  the 
Messiah  he  was  expecting,  yet  the  inward  voice 
was  silent  until  Jesus  came.  But  when  John 
saw  and  talked  with  Jesus  that  strange  voice 
which  had  first  told  him  to  preach,  spoke  to 
him  again  and  said,  "This  is  he  that  baptizeth 
not  with  water  only  but  with  the  spirit  of  holi- 
ness." 

No    divine   inspiration    ever   entirely   over- 
powers the  freedom  of   the  human   will,  and 


THE  BAPTISM  AND  TEMPTATION     43 

men  will  forever  look  upon  the  humility  and 
self-abnegation  of  John  as  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  illustrations  of  wisdom  and  virtue  in 
all  the  records  of  humanity.  The  language 
ascribed  to  him  is  perhaps  not  historical,  yet 
in  substance  and  spirit  at  least  he  declared  to 
his  followers:  "Behold  the  Lamb  of  God  that 
taketh  away  the  sins  of  the  world."  Here  is 
the  man  who  is  to  do  away  with  the  empty  and 
barbarous,  the  worse  than  useless,  the  cruel, 
degrading  and  outworn  system  of  sacrifices 
which  so  many  earlier  prophets  have  protested 
against  in  vain.  Here  is  God's  messenger  and 
anointed  one  who  will  purify  his  people  and 
take  away  their  sins  by  righteousness  and 
mercy  and  not  by  "the  blood  of  bulls  and 
goats,"  which  is  not  pleasing  to  God  and  can- 
not atone  for  sin. 

John  was  at  first  unwilling  to  baptize  one 
whom  he  felt  to  be  greater  than  himself,  but 
Jesus  urged  it  and  John  assented.  The  act  of 
Jesus  was  a  very  gracious  one.  He  too  was 
free  from  all  petty  jealousy.  He  was  not 
angry  because  John  had  anticipated  him  in  the 
kind  of  work  he  had  been  longing  for  an  op- 
portunity to  do;  he  was  content  to  enroll 
himself  in  the  ranks  of  John's  followers.  But 
the  event  was  not  to  be  so.     When  Jesus  went 


44       THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

down  into  the  water  and  John  poured  the 
emblem  of  purification  upon  his  head,  Jesus 
distinctly  heard  a  voice  that  said  unto  him, 
"Thou  art  my  beloved  Son  in  whom  I  am  well 
pleased." 

There  is  here  no  occasion  for  doubt.  "There 
are  more  things  in  heaven  and  in  earth  than  are 
dreamed  of  in  your  philosophy."  Socrates, 
Mohammed,  Peter  the  Hermit,  Joan  of  Arc, 
and  many  others  have  heard,  or  believed  they 
heard,  voices  which  commanded,  encouraged 
or  restrained  them  at  critical  periods  in  their 
lives. 

Whatever  Jesus  heard,  it  affected  him  most 
profoundly.  He  was  driven  by  his  agitated 
spirit  into  the  wilderness,  for  he  felt  as  all 
really  great  men  feel  that  a  man's  responsi- 
bility for  his  conduct  is  personal,  and  cannot 
be  abdicated  or  even  shared.  Like  Moses 
before  and  Paul  after  him,  he  went  into  soli- 
tude to  fight  out  the  great  battle  with  his 
doubts  and  fears  and  to  determine  his  course  of 
action. 

It  was  no  light  thing  to  announce  himself  a 
prophet  and  to  undertake  to  rebuke  wicked- 
ness in  high  places,  to  antagonize  deep-seated 
national  customs  and  prejudices,  and  to  oppose 
his  opinion,    that  of  a  young  and    unlearned 


THE  BAPTISM  AND  TEMPTATION    45 

mechanic,  to  the  teaching  of  aged  and  vener- 
ated doctors  of  the  law. 

Mind  and  body  suffered  and  most  men  would 
have  collapsed  under  the  strain.  But  the  tem- 
perament of  Jesus  was  intense,  and  the  occasion 
of  his  excitement  was  great.  It  is  not,  there- 
fore, surprising  that  he  forgot  all  about  his 
need  of  food  and  wandered  for  many  days  with- 
out the  sense  of  hunger. 

But  at  last  even  the  strong  vitality  of  the 
young  carpenter-prophet  was  exhausted.  His 
overtaxed  physical  nature  asserted  itself,  and 
he  hungered.  In  broken  snatches  of  sleep  or 
in  the  waking  visions  of  exhaustion  and  deli- 
rium he  thought  that  he  was  tempted  by  the 
devil  to  make  bread  out  of  stones,  to  throw 
himself  from  a  pinnacle  of  the  temple,  or  to 
make  himself  a  king  by  worshiping  his 
Satanic  tempter. 

The  temptation  of  Jesus  obviously  reflects  in 
exaggerated  and  grotesque  forms  the  tenor  of 
his  ordinary  waking  thoughts.  The  practical 
question  of  subsistence  is  imperative.  A  man 
must  eat  or  starve,  and  if  he  wants  to  eat  and 
has  no  money  he  must  either  earn  his  daily 
bread  or  beg  it.  Perhaps  Jesus  was  not  long 
or  greatly  troubled  by  this  primary  aspect  of 
the     question.       Yet    it    required    faith    and 


46       THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

courage  to  abandon  his  certain  and  comfortable 
subsistence  as  a  workman  and  to  determine  to 
adopt  the  precarious  life  of  a  prophet. 

In  all  probability  Jesus  had  a  much  harder 
struggle  before  he  was  perfectly  willing  to 
renounce  "all  the  kingdoms  of  this  world." 
It  is  easy  enough  to  call  the  grapes  that  hang 
too  high  for  us  sour.  We  are  all  ready  to 
renounce  every  thing  that  is  quite  out  of 
our  reach,  but  to  renounce  the  good  things 
we  have  or  think  we  may  secure  is  quite 
another  matter.  Jesus  loved  beauty,  and  long 
and  hard  toil  had  prepared  him  to  relish 
leisure.  His  mind,  too,  was  eager  for  knowl- 
edge, and  the  opportunity  for  study  and  travel 
that  money  affords  was  enticing  to  him. 
Every  man  who  walks  through  the  long  series 
of  stately  rooms  of  a  palace  full  of  paintings, 
sculptures,  mosaics,  and  draperies,  and  then 
from  its  balconies  and  corridors  views  the  ter- 
raced gardens,  fair  as  Paradise  with  its 
"flowers  of  all  hues  and  trees  of  noblest  kind," 
must  feel  the  fascination  there  is  in  great 
riches. 

But  whatever  attractiveness  these  things  had 
for  Jesus,  he  rejected  the  temptation  to  pur- 
chase them  in  the  usual  way  by  selfishness, 
hardness,    and    injustice.       He    would    rather 


THE  BAPTISM  AND  TEMPTATION     47 

"keep  a  conscience  than  a  carriage,"  or  its 
ancient  equivalent. 

Yet  there  is  a  far  greater  temptation  than 
mere  riches.  Men  desire  nothing  so  much  as 
power. 

The  young  carpenter  of  Nazareth  could  no 
more  fail  to  know  that  he  was  greater  in  soul 
than  his  fellows  than  a  man  seven  feet  high 
can  fail  to  see  that  he  is  taller  in  body.  He 
must  often  have  heard  of  the  doings  of  Herod 
Antipas,  the  princeling  who  ruled  Galilee,  and 
perhaps  he  had  occasionally  seen  him  and  esti- 
mated him  then  as  contemptuously  as  he  did 
later  when  he  called  him  a  "fox." 

"To  the  workman  belong  the  tools,"  said 
Napoleon,  and  fitness  for  rule  has  by  many  a 
man  besides  Napoleon  been  considered  a  suffi- 
cient title  to  a  throne.  The  energetic  mayor 
of  the  palace  thrusts  aside  the  do-nothing  king, 
and  from  being  the  power  behind  the  throne 
changes  himself  into  the  ruler  upon  it.  Jesus 
was  tempted  to  do  the  same  thing.  But  when 
he  thought  of  the  inevitable  consequences  of  a 
revolution  and  a  change  of  dynasty,  thought 
of  the  wars  and  sieges  that  would  ensue, 
thought  of  men  torn  from  their  homes  to  die, 
of  moaning  widows  and  helpless  orphans, 
thought  of  all  the  unutterable  wickedness  and 


48        THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

misery  of  a  war  of  ambition,  thought  of  the 
bloodstained  Herod  pompously  called  '  the 
Great,  yet  so  tortured  by  remorse  for  his 
crimes  that  he  was  the  most  miserable  man  in 
all  his  dominions, — when  Jesus  thought  of  all 
these  things  he  refused 

"To  wade  through  slaughter  to  a  throne 
And  shut  the  gates  of  mercy ^on  mankind." 

But  as  Jesus  shrank  from  the  brutalities  of 
war,  the  temptation  changed  its  form  and  the 
idea  of  reaching  the  high  places  of  power  by 
policy  and  intrigue  suggested  itself. 

Do  not  be  so  harsh  and  peremptory  as  John 
the  Baptist  or  Elijah,  said  the  tempter.  Be 
politic,  "worship  me,"  flatter  men  in  power 
and  make  yourself  indispensable  to  them,  and 
they  will  promote  you.  Enter  a  Rabbinical 
school,  get  a  place  in  the  Sanhedrin  and  in  a 
few  years  become  High  Priest,  and  then,  who 
knows  but  that  the  way  will  open  for  you  to 
drive  out  the  Roman  governor  and  become  the 
successor  of  David  and  the  King  of  Israel. 
The  gospels  go  farther  and  say  that  the  tempta- 
tion of  possessing  "all  the  kingdoms  of  this 
world"  entered  his  mind.  Perhaps  he  thought 
it  was  possible  for  him  to  repeat  the  career  of 
Alexander    the    Great,    who    three    centuries 


THE  BAPTISM  AND  TEMPTATION    49 

earlier,  at  about  his  own  age,  had  entered  upon 
the  conquest  of  the  world. 

The  renunciation  of  the  world  by  Jesus  was 
not  like  the  weariness  and  satiety  which  led 
Charles  V.,  the  most  powerful  monarch  of  his 
time,  to  abdicate  his  throne  and  retire  to  a 
monastery  to  spend  his  last  years  in  rehearsing 
his  funeral  and  in  other  gloomy  and  austere 
religious  ceremonies. 

No.  The  renunciation  of  wealth  and  of 
worldly  power  by  Jesus  was  the  act  of  a  young 
man  full  of  life  and  ambition,  one  who  shrank 
from  no  danger  and  responsibility  and  found 
his  supreme  joy  in  audacious  thought  and 
energetic  action,  but  who  subordinated  every- 
thing else  to  the  will  of  God,  to  the  voice  of 
conscience,  to  the  rights  and  welfare  of  others, 
one  who  was  too  generous  and  noble  to  make 
himself  great  except  by  love  and  service,  and 
so  never  reigned  as  a  vulgar  conqueror  by  im- 
posing laws  upon  cities  and  kingdoms  and  for  a 
little  while  regulating  the  external  life  of  a 
nation.  He  does  not  rule  over  men  but  in 
them.  He  is  the  Friend  of  Humanity,  the 
affectionate  elder  Brother,  the  Man  of  Sor- 
rows, who  toiled  and  suffered  and  dared  for 
us. 

Jesus  "tried  the  spirit"  which  tempted  him. 


50       THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

He  had  considered  the  voice  that  greeted  him 
when  he  was  baptized  to  be  from  God,  but  this 
whisper  of  worldly  ambition  was  to  him  the 
voice  of  Satan,  and  his  brief,  firm  answer, 
unlike  the  inquisitive  paltering  which  led  to 
the  downfall  of  Macbeth,  was,  "Get  thee 
hence,  Satan." 

Other  strange  temptations  passed  through 
his  mind,  but  he  was  proof  against  them  all. 
He  had  conquered  the  fear  of  poverty,  calumny 
and  death,  he  had  conquered  the  love  of  ease, 
wealth  and  poWer.  He  accepted  the  office  of 
a  prophet  of  righteousness  with  all  its  dimly- 
foreseen  strife  and  sorrow,  and  of  a  herald  of 
that  kingdom  of  heaven,  the  speedy  coming  of 
which  John  had  announced. 

There  is  nothing  in  the  life  of  Jesus  so  won- 
derful and  commanding  as  the  swift  complete- 
ness of  all  his  moral  victories.  He  never 
dallied  with  temptation  or  placated  his  con- 
science with  the  specious  arguments  that  come 
thronging  to  the  mind  that  is  inclined  to 
evil.  He  saw  the  right  by  intuition,  and  his 
conscience,  fortified  by  long  habit  and  by 
devout  prayer,  commanded  and  obtained 
instant  obedience.  The  life-long  practice  of 
humble  duties  prepared  him  for  all  great 
emergencies. 


THE  BAPTISM  AND  TEMPTATION     51 

When  his  internal  struggle  was  ended, 
"angels  came  and  ministered  unto  him." 
Food  and  sleep,  memory,  hope,  conscience, 
sympathetic  friends*  and  the  felt  presence  of 
God  in  his  world  restored  his  strength  and 
serenity. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE    KINGDOM    OF  HEAVEN 

The  conception  for  the  sake  of  which  Jesus 
rejected  all  worldly  ambitions  was  the  simplest 
and  yet  the  grandest  that  ever  entered  into  the 
heart  of  man.  He  would  transform  earth  into 
heaven.  He  would  redress  all  wrongs,  cure  all 
diseases,  wipe  away  all  tears,  he  would  dry  up 
all  the  countless  streams  of  sin  and  sorrow  by 
purifying  the  corrupt  source  of  them  all,  the 
human  heart.  He  would  establish  a  society  of 
men  and  women  who  should  be  perfect  as  their 
Father  in  heaven  is  perfect. 

He  had  at  first  announced  that  he  was  sent 
only  to  the  lost  sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel, 
but,  as  in  the  later  case  of  Paul,  the  opposition 
of  the  Jews  and  the  tolerance  of  the  Gentiles 
changed  his  views  and  gradually  led  him  into 
the  sublime  conception  of  a  universal  religion, 
a  world-wide  kingdom  of  God. 

"And   when   the   devil    had   ended    all    the 

temptations,     he    departed    from    him    for    a 

season.     And  Jesus  returned  in  the  power  of 

the  spirit  into  Galilee:    and  there  went  out  a 

52 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  HEAVEN        53 

fame  of  him  through  all  the  region  round 
about.  And  he  taught  in  their  synagogues 
being  glorified  of  all."  This  is  the  account  in 
the  gospel  by  Luke  of  the  opening  of  the  pub- 
lic ministry  of  Jesus.  Matthew  says,  "Jesus 
began  to  preach  and  to  say,  Repent:  for  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand." 

Jesus  grew  into  manhood  at  a  time  when  a 
mighty  hope  filled  Judea,  a  hope  that,  time, 
the  destroyer  of  whatever  is  destructible,  has 
not  yet  been  able  to  quench.  Even  down  to 
our  own  day,  when  a  Jewish  family  celebrates 
the  Passover  the  door  is  left  ajar  to  admit  the 
prophet  Elijah  in  case  he  should  appear  to 
announce  the  coming  of  the  Messiah.  O,  idle 
waiting  and  pathetic  unbelief!  But  how  elo- 
quent is  this  custom!  If  after  nineteen  hun- 
dred years  of  exile,  of  poverty,  of  persecution, 
and  of  hope  deferred  that  maketh  the  heart 
sick,  Israel  still  clings  with  desperate  tenacity 
to  this  expectation,  what  must  have  been  the 
original  intensity  of  this  faith!  No  other 
enthusiasm  was  ever  so  ardent  and  general  as 
the  Jewish  longing  for  a  Messiah  in  the  time 
of  Jesus,  and  we  can  see  how  events  gradually 
forced  upon  him  the  conviction  that  he  was 

"The  pillar  of  the  nation's  hope, 
The  center  of  the  world's  desire," 


54       THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

the  one  appointed  by  the  omnipotent  and 
eternal  God  to  establish  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
upon  earth. 

All  Judea  was  in  a  ferment.  The  Jews, 
proud  of  their  ancient  and  illustrious  descent, 
mindful  of  their  former  political  greatness,  re- 
minded constantly  by  impressive  national  festi- 
vals of  former  deliverances  from  foreign 
oppressors,  and  above  all  fired  by  the  predic- 
tions of  ardent  prophets  and  the  sublime  strains 
of  patriotic  poets,  hated  the  Roman  yoke  with 
a  frenzy  of  animosity  compared  to  which  Irish 
or  Dutch  hostility  to  England  is  almost  like 
affection.  The  Jewish  tax  gatherer,  the  agent 
of  the  Roman  power,  was  looked  upon  with 
loathing  as  a  traitor  and  a  renegade.  He  had 
denied  his  nationality,  he  had  become  a 
heathen.  He  was  an  outcast  and  associated  in 
the  common  mind  with  harlots  and  vile  men. 
"Publicans  and  sinners"  are  almost  synonyms 
in  the  gospels. 

Such  was  the  national  discontent  that  if 
Jesus  had  never  been  born  or  had  never 
preached  the  coming  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,  the  course  of  events,  so  far  as  Judaism 
is  concerned,  would  have  been  nearly  the 
same.  The  Jews  would,  in  any  case,  soon 
have   rebelled  against  the   Roman  yoke,   and 


THE  KINGDOM  OP  HEAVEN       55 

their  nationality  would  have  been  destroyed 
and  their  religion  changed  in  consequence. 
In  fact  it  seems  to  me  most  likely  that  the 
attempt  by  Jesus  to  substitute  a  spiritual  and 
philanthropic  revolution  for  a  political  one 
such  as  was  generally  expected,  actually  pro- 
longed the  life  of  the  Jewish  national  institu- 
tions, in  much  the  same  way  as  the  preaching 
of  John  Wesley  and  his  followers  reinforced 
the  influences  that  prevented  England  from  fol- 
lowing the  lead  of  France  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  and  made  his  countrymen  reform 
patiently  by  moral  and  constitutional  methods. 

Jesus,  like  his  great  modern  disciple,  Wesley, 
believed  that  the  really  important  thing  was  to 
break  the  yoke  of  sin  rather  than  that  of  king 
or  governor.  He  believed  that  if  men  were 
inwardly  free  and  right,  outward  freedom  and 
outward  prosperity  would  inevitably  quickly 
follow.  "Seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and 
all  these  things  shall  be  added,"  might  have 
been  said,  and  is  actually  implied,  of  many 
things  beside  food  and  raiment. 

In  comparing  the  schemes  of  most  other 
thinkers  with  the  "kingdom  of  heaven"  as  it 
existed  in  the  mind  of  Jesus,  we  notice  that 
all  other  reformers  attach  more  value  to 
changes  in  law  and  institutions,  to  the  regula- 


S6        THE  CARPENTER   PROPHET 

tion  of  labor  and  the  just  distribution  of  wealth, 
and  in  general  to  man's  external  condition, 
than  did  Jesus. 

His  primary  method  for  reforming  society 
was  to  reform  the  individual  members  of  it. 
The  whole  can  never  be  greater  than  the  sum 
of  all  its  parts.  A  community  made  up  of 
imperfect  people  must  be  an  imperfect  com- 
munity. He  wished,  therefore,  to  found  a 
society  of  perfect  people,  the  beauty  and 
blessedness  of  whose  lives  should  gradually 
win  all  other  men  to  righteousness  and  peace. 
"Blessed,"  said  Jesus,  "are  the  pure,  the 
humble,  the  peacemakers,  the  merciful,  and  all 
who  hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness,  for 
they  shall  be  filled."  The  conception  that  the 
righteous  man  is  blessed  rests  upon  belief  in  a 
righteous  God,  and  the  conception  that  a 
merciful  man  is  blessed  upon  belief  in  a  merci- 
ful God.  Accordingly  God  was  to  Jesus  a 
Father  in  heaven,  who  desired  the  good  of  all 
his  children  and  would  certainly  give  them  his 
holy  spirit  if  they  sincerely  and  earnestly 
desired  to  have  his  spirit  and  be  like  him. 
Then  when  the  heart  was  pure  the  life  would 
of  course  be  right,  for  a  good  tree  cannot  bring 
forth  corrupt  fruit. 

Jesus  preached  stern  doctrines.     Righteous- 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  HEAVEN       57 

ness  must  have  an  undivided  and  absolute 
sovereignty.  You  cannot  serve  God  and 
Mammon,  A  house  divided  against  itself  can- 
not stand.  As  Lincoln  said  of  this  nation  that 
it  cannot  exist  half  slave  and  half  free,  so 
Jesus  taught  that  a  man  must  make  his  choice 
between  good  and  evil.  He  could  not  mix 
them  and  be  a  little  of  each,  for  one  principle 
must  be  the  more  potent  and  eventually  must 
destroy  the  other.  To  bring  about  this  result 
might  take  a  longer  or  a  shorter  time,  but  the 
result  was  inevitable,  and  every  one  who 
attempted  to  save  his  life  by  sin  was  sure  to 
lose  it,  and  every  one  who  was  willing,  if  need 
be,  to  lose  his  life  for  righteousness  was  sure 
to  save  it. 

God's  care  of  the  righteous  was  absolutely 
perfect.  Not  a  hair  of  their  heads  should 
perish.  They  need  not  fear  men,  for  men 
could  only  kill  the  body,  and  the  destruction 
of  the  body  did  not  in  any  degree  injure  or 
jeopardize  the  soul. 

Jesus  saw  very  clearly  that  all  men  would 
not  at  first  accept  these  teachings.  In  many 
parables  he  taught  that  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
was  a  test.  It  was  like  a  net  which  caught 
good  and  bad.  It  was  like  wheat  and  tares. 
It  was  like  seed  on  fertile  and  on  stony  soil. 


S8        THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

It  was  like  servants  entrusted  with  their  Lord's 
money.  It  was  like  virgins  invited  to  a  wed- 
ding. 

It  is  thus  that  every  great  teacher  is  at  times 
deeply  saddened  at  the  thought  that  in  spite 
of  all  possible  clearness  of  demonstration,  in 
spite  of  the  most  patient  teaching  and  example 
and  the  most  earnest  exhortation,  some  will 
remain  blind  and  deaf.  Some  will  be  too 
prejudiced  even  to  listen,  some  whose  interest 
is  for  a  moment  awakened  will  be  too  indolent 
to  examine  and  weigh  all  the  facts  and  reach 
an  intelligent  conclusion,  and  many  will  turn 
away  from  the  clearest  light  because  it  rebukes 
their  selfish  lives. 

Although  Jesus  attached  supreme  importance 
to  the  purification  and  ennoblement  of  the  indi- 
vidual life,  he  did  not  undervalue  changes  in 
external  conditions.  Jesus  persistently  advo- 
cated justice'and  mercy,  and  taught  by  precept 
and  example  that  all  property  is  a  stewardship. 
The  rich  man  was  condemned  for  faring 
sumptuously  and  neglecting  his  poorer  neigh- 
bor. It  was  not  said  that  his  money  was  not 
legally  and  honestly  acquired,  but  he  was  con- 
demned for  not  using  it  better.  To  clothe  the 
naked,  to  feed  the  hungry,  to  visit  the  sick  and 
the  prisoner  are  paramount  duties,  and,  in  the 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  HEAVEN       59 

vision  of  the  last  judgment,  are  the  tests  by 
which  Jesus  will  determine  his  true  disciples. 

Jesus  preached  the  gospel  to  the  poor.  He 
loved  the  poor.  He  showed  that  he  loved 
them  by  sharing  their  lot.  By  his  splendid 
abilities  he  might  easily  have  lifted  himself 
into  affluence,  but  he  preferred  to  stay  with  the 
class  to  which  he  belonged  by  birth.  He 
stayed  poor  because  he  ^id  not  want  to  be  a 
deserter  and  a  shirk.  He  saw  how  insufficient 
are  the  common  charities  of  men;  how  unsatis- 
factory it  is  to  give  alms,  little  driblets  of 
charity  lo  tide  men  over  special  periods  of  dis- 
tress while  at  the  same  time  sharply  maintain- 
ing class  distinctions  and  holding  aloof  from 
any  real  human  fellowship  and  sympathy. 
Jesus  knew  that  men  do  not  live  by  bread 
alone,  but  that  they  need  food  for  the  soul  as 
well  as  for  the  body,  and  that  the  one  essen- 
tial food  for  the  soul  is  love,  and  that  real  love 
always  manifests  itself  in  companionship  and 
service. 

A  poor  man  was  to  Jesus  a  child  of  God,  an 
heir  of  heaven,  a  being  of  infinite  possibilities. 
He  did  not  look  upon  men  in  the  mass  as  part 
of  the  resources  of  a  nation,  like  its  sheep  and 
cattle.  They  were  not  slaves,  serfs,  "hands," 
but    thinking    brains    and    throbbing    hearts. 


6o       THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

They  were  not  pieces  on  the  chess-board  to  be 
played  hither  and  thither  in  the  service  of  the 
king.  They  were  not  food  for  the  sword  and 
spear,  "food  for  powder"  in  the  modern 
phrase,  to  be  sacrificed  in  war  to  serve  the  am- 
bition of  sovereigns  or  statesmen.  Jesus  is 
the  greatest  asserter  of  the  doctrine  that  every 
man  has  "an  inalienable  right  to  life,  liberty, 
and  the  pursuit  of  happiness."  By  every  word 
and  deed  Jesus  preached  the  gospel  to  the 
poor.  There  is  a  great  difference  between  the 
Christianity  of  most  of  us  and  the  Christianity 
of  Jesus  Christ.  Bearing  the  cross*  means 
doing  painful  duties,  and  in  our  artificial 
society  the  weak  and  spoiled  children  of  for- 
tune are  little  willing  and  little  able  to  adopt 
the  ideas  and  imitate  the  life  of  him  who  for 
our  sakes  endured  the  hardships  of  poverty. 

Jesus  himself  went  about  doing  good.  He 
said,  "It  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  re- 
ceive," and  that- all  true  greatness  is  service 
and  helpfulness  and  not  lordship  and  power. 

His  earliest  followers  so  understood  him  and 
had  all  things  in  common,  and  in  the  first  cen- 
tury practical  philanthropy  was  one  of  the 
church's  greatest  elements  of  power.  "See," 
said  the  wondering  heathen,  "how  these  Chris- 
tians love!"     Ah!    how  soon  the  disbelief  in 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  HEAVEN       6i 

God's  goodness  of  poor,  burdened  and  dis- 
couraged humanity  melts  away  in  the  warm 
sunshine  of  humafn  love!  "Come  unto  me,  all 
ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy-laden,  and  I  will 
give  you  rest,"  or,  in  an  older  version,  "Come 
unto  me,  all  ye  that  are  careful  (full  of  care), 
and  I  will  refresh  you."  No  wonder  that  the 
common  people  heard  gladly  the  gospel  of  Jesus. 

It  was  a  gospel  of  faith,  hope  and  charity, 
the  three  Christian  graces,  fairer  than  all  the 
nine  Muses  of  poetry  and  philosophy. 

Jesus  was  taunted  by  the  Pharisees  with  being 
the  friend  of  publicans  and  sinners.  His 
answer  was,  The  publicans  and  the  harlots  are 
nearer  the  kingdom  of  God  than  you  are. 
Sinners  who  belonged  to  the  neglected  and  un- 
fortunate classes  always  had  the  especial  help 
of  Jesus.  Many  of  them  doubtless  heard  from 
his  lips  with  glad  surprise  the  first  kindly  and 
encouraging  words  ever  spoken  to  them,  and 
they  responded  without  hesitation.  He  knew 
that  the  sinner's  lot  was  hard.  Defeated  in 
the  battle  of  life,  down-trodden  and  despised, 
they  had  little  to  lose  and  much  to  gain  by 
becommg  followers  of  Jesus.  Some  of  them 
were  attracted  only  by  the  "loaves  and  fishes," 
and  did  not  tarry  long,  but  others  were  irre- 
sistibly drawn  by  the  beauty  of  Christ's  teach- 


62        THE  CA^IPENTER  PROPHET 

ing  and  life,  and  remained  faithful  disciples  till 
death.  To  the  sons  and  daughters  of  misfor- 
tune Jesus  was  always  strangely  tender.  Quick 
to  discern  the  first  sign  of  remorse  for  sin, 
quick  to  speak  words  of  pardon  and  hope  to 
the  penitent,  patient  with  the  faults  and 
ignorance  of  the  feeblest  and  dullest  disciple, 
he  "broke  no  bruised  reed  and  quenched  no 
smoking  flax." 

But  his  indignation  was  hot  against  hypo- 
crites and  cowards.  Those  who  had  the  fullest 
light  and  deliberately  rejected  it,  those  who 
made  holy  things  a  mere  stock  in  trade,  those 
who  while  daily  parading  their  knowledge  of 
the  sublime  and  searching  words  of  the  law  and 
the  prophets,  had  hardened  their  hearts  against 
them,  he  denounced  with  unsparing  vehe- 
mence, 

Jesus  puts  himself  before  men  in  two  charac- 
ters; first  as  a  comforter  and  helper,  and 
second  as  an  example,  and  these  two  charac- 
ters should  be  exhibited  as  parts  of  one  life. 
But  human  nature  feels  itself  weak  and  help- 
less, and  shrinks  from  the  labor  of  imitating  a 
herojc  example,  and  so,  for  its  own  consola- 
tion, it  exaggerates  the  strength  of  Jesus  and 
makes  him  the  universal  healer  and  burden 
bearer.     It  emphasizes  his  declaration,  "Come 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  HEAVEN        63 

unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor,  and  I  will  give  you 
rest,"  while  it  overlooks,  "He  that  taketh  not 
up  his  cross  and  followeth  after  me,  cannot  be 
my  disciple." 

Yet  progress  is  being  made,  and  a  hopeful 
spirit  is  abroad, — a  belief  that  the  conditions  of 
human  life  may  be  greatly  bettered.  It  is  the 
glory  of  Christianity  that  it  is  the  religion  of 
hope,  and  that  it  has  taught  men  to  look  for- 
ward and  not  back. 


CHAPTER  VII 


CHRIST   AS   A   TEACHER 


Some  of  the  ancient  rhetoricians  taught  very 
truly  that  the  first  requisite  of  the  orator  is 
that  he  should  be  a  good  man.  Sincerity  of 
character  is  the  great  source  of  strength.  A 
great  conviction  in  the  heart  gives  power  to 
the  tongue.  Jesus  was  great  as  a  teacher 
because  his  life  enforced  his  utterances. 

He  believed  what  he  said,  and  so  he  taught 
"as  one  having  authority  and  not  as  the 
scribes."  He  saw  things  for  himself,  and  was 
not  bound  by  the  authority  of  the  learned  or 
the  opinion  of  the  multitude.  He  trusted  his 
intuitions.  He  looked  within  for  truth.  He 
brushed  away  a  body  of  tradition  even  more 
extensive  and  minute  than  that  which  now  en- 
cumbers and  chokes  his  own  teachings.  But 
Jesus  did  not  go  to  the  extremes  of  the  great 
modern  transcendentalists.  He  built  more 
solidly  upon  the  common  experience  and 
established  institutions  of  men.  He  came  not 
to  destroy  the  law,  but  to  fulfill.  Like  all  the 
greatest  men,  he  looked  before  and  after.  He 
64 


CHRIST  AS  A  TEACHER  65 

valued  memory  as  well  as  hope.  He  was  a 
conservative  as  well  as  a  radical.  He  formed 
his  opinions  slowly  and  carefully,  and  then 
held  them  against  all  external  authority,  and 
only  modified  them  as  new  light,  which  he  was 
always  ready  to  receive,  shone  in  upon  his  own 
mind.  He  read  as  did  Bacon  the  passages  in 
Jeremiah  upon  the  old  ways:  Stand  in  the  old 
ways  till  ye  see  where  the  good  way  is  and 
then  walk  therein.  His  description  of  a  wise 
teacher  is  that  he  brings  out  of  his  treasury 
things  new  and  old.  What  Jesus  Icnew  he 
knew.  He  did  not  "nibble  and  quibble  and 
scribble,"  and  get  together  a  medley  of 
precedent  and  bind  himself  body  and  soul  in 
chains  of  tradition  like  the  ordinary  doctors 
of  the  law,  but  he  read  the  hearts  of  men,  and 
above  all  he  trusted  his  own  consciousness. 

He  came  not  to  narrow  life,  but  to  elevate  it 
and  make  it  more  abundant.  The  traditions  of 
his  race  and  the  narrowness  of  his  own  educa- 
tion prevented  any  full  development  of  his 
artistic  nature,  but  it  manifests  itself  in  the 
germ.  Much  as  he  admired  John  the  Baptist's 
heroism,  and  much  as  he  adopted  of  his  ideas 
and  methods,  he  turned  away  with  dislike  from 
John's  coarse  clothing  and  scanty,  unwholesome 
food,    and    from    his   ascetic  solitude.      Jesus 


66        THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

came  eating  and  drinking.  He  attended  wed- 
ding feasts  and  drew  illustrations  from  them. 
He  loved  flowers  and  children  and  their 
games. 

But  the  circumstances  of  the  time  and  the 
bent  of  his  own  mind  made  oratory  and  poetry 
the  chief  forms  in  which  his  love  of  artistic 
effect  displayed  itself.  He  sang  hymns  with 
his  disciples.  He  punned  and  jested  with 
them.  He  knew  how  a  feather  wings  an  arrow 
and  how  an  epigram  or  skillfully-turned  phrase 
gives  currency  to  a  truth.  His  language  is  not 
more  remarkable  for  the  truth,  weight  and 
dignity  of  its  substance  than  for  the  beauty, 
the  symmetry,  the  melody,  the  perfect  choice 
and  arrangement  of  words  and  the  abundance, 
variety,  force  and  appropriateness  of  the  fig- 
ures. Well  might  contemporaries  say,  "Never 
man  spake  like  this  man."  According  to  the 
definition  of  a  good  style  as  "proper  words  in 
proper  places,"  Jesus  is  the  greatest  of  all  mas- 
ters of  style,  and  it  is  as  natural  as  it  is  notice- 
able that  habitual  readers  of  the  Bible  are 
superior  not  only  in  morals  but  in  grace  and 
power  of  speech  to  those  who  neglect  that 
supreme  volume. 

The  form  of  Hebrew  poetry  is  simple  and 
rarely  degenerates  into  weakness  or  triviality. 


CHRIST  AS  A  TEACHER  67 

It  maintains  a  happy  medium  between  the  ex- 
treme conciseness  which  prevents  either  clear- 
ness or  emotion,  and  the  diffuseness  which 
always  causes  weakness.  To  say  a  thing  twice 
in  a  somewhat  different  way  is  to  give  a  double 
sense  of  its  beauty  and  value.  It  is  like  turn- 
ing a  coin  over  and  seeing  that  the  reverse  side 
is  as  rich  as  the  obverse  one.  To  make  a  state- 
ment and  then  follow  it  with  a  brief  and  wise 
explanation  or  proof  is  to  give  the  sword  of 
truth  not  merely  a  sharp  edge  but  a  reinforcing 
weight.  The  parables  have  the  best  literary 
characteristics  of  the  psalms  and  prophecies 
with  a  clearness  of  outline  and  a  continuity  of 
development  far  greater  than  theirs. 

His  teaching  reaches  its  climax  of  beauty 
and  power  in  the  beatitudes.  Their  value  is 
beyond  our  poor  praise. 

"To  gild  refined  gold,  to  paint  the  lily, 
To  add  a  perfume  to  the  violet. 
Is  wasteful  and  ridiculous  excess." 

We  can  but  bow  in  adoration  before  these, 
the  sublimest  and  most  wonderful  of  all  say- 
ings, the  shortest  and  the  greatest  of  all  poems. 

Jesus  not  only  delighted  in  rhythm,  but  he 
enjoyed  a  pun  and  appreciated  its  value  as  a 
means  of  fixing  an  idea  in  the  mind  and  rous- 


68       THE   CARPENTER   PROPHET 

ing  the  emotions.  Beneath  his  surface  gaiety 
he  was  very  serious  when  he  called  Simon  and 
Andrew  in  the  playful  words,  "Follow  me, 
you  fishermen,  and  I  will  make  you  fishers  of 
men,"  and  it  was  at  a  great  crisis  in  his  history 
that  he  said  to  Peter,  what  may  be  rendered, 
Thy  name  means  rock,  and  on  this  rock  I  will 
build  my  church. 

These  and  other  plays  on  words  appear  more 
plainly  in  the  Greek  than  in  the  English  revi- 
sion, but  many  similar  ones  are  lost  in  any 
translation  of  the  language  of  Jesus  out  of  the 
Aramaic  in  which  he  usually  spoke. 

I  love  to  think  of  Jesus  as  having  worked  at 
the  poet's  as  well  as  at  the  carpenter's  craft,  as 
having  tested  the  value  of  words,  and  toiled  to 
attain  mastery  of  all  the  arts  of  expression. 
But,  however  perfect  are  his  rhythm  and  dic- 
tion, these  rhetorical  excellences  are  the 
smallest  part  of  his  greatness. 

There  is  no  trace  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  of 
the  influence  of  the  drama  as  such,  yet  he  is 
akin  to  Shakespeare  in'the  natural  qualities  of 
his  mind,  in  the  quickness  and  range  of  his 
observation  and  sympathy,  and  in  the  ease  with 
which  he  interpreted  the  human  heart.  He 
looked  with  genial  interest  upon  all  classes  of 
mankind.     He  talked  of  shepherds  and  fisher- 


CHRIST  AS  A  TEACHER  69 

men,  of  farmers  and  merchants,  of  slaves  and 
kings,  of  stewards  and  soldiers,  of  maidens 
and  housewives,  of  mothers  and  children,  of 
rich  and  poor,  of  sinners  and  saints,  and  knew 
what  was  in  them  all.  We  have  but  a  small 
selection  of  his  sayings,  as  we  have  but  a  frag- 
ment of  his  life,  but  the  small  body  of  his  teach- 
ing that  remains  has  furnished  more  stimulus  to 
thought  and  more  material  for  profitable  com- 
ment and  elaboration  than  the  works  of  any 
other  author  however  voluminous. 

Ancient  literature  is  about  gods  rather  than 
men.  Jesus  was  fed  on  an  imaginative  litera- 
ture which  dealt  very  boldly  with  the  person  of 
God.  In  the  Jewish  drama  of  life,  God  was  the 
central  figure,  as  he  is  in  some  of  the  medieval 
miracle  plays.  If  we  read  the  older  prophets 
more  closely  and  sympathetically  the  lan- 
guage of  Jesus  would  often  be  more  intelligible 
to  us.  For  example  it  will  assist  us  in  inter- 
preting the  gospel  accounts  of  Jesus  upon  the 
throne  of  judgment  with  all  nations  before  him, 
if  we  read  that  Jeremiah  throws  his  teach- 
ing into  the  same  boldly  dramatic  form 
and  makes  a  similar  claim  to  universal  lord-^ 
ship.  "The  Lord  said  unto  me,  .  .  .  See,  I 
have  this  day  set  thee  over  the  nations  and 
over  the  kingdoms,   to   root  out  and  to  pull 


1o       THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

down  and  to  destroy,  and  to  throw  down  and  to 
build  and  to  plant"  (Jer.  1:9,  10). 

In  general,  according  to  the  habit  of  his 
nation  and  his  time,  and  of  all  great  writings 
in  all  times,  the  language  of  Jesus  was  boldly 
figurative.  A  great  figure  rouses  the  sluggish 
imagination  and  stirs  the  blood  like  the  sound 
of  a  trumpet,  or  it  flashes  light  into  the  dark- 
est understanding  or  fastens  an  idea  in  the 
most  volatile  memory.  Who  that  ever  heard 
them  could  forget  the  words,  "Let  the  dead 
bury  their  dead,"  or  "If  these  should  hold 
their  peace  the  stones  would  immediately  cry 
out,"  or  "If  ye  have  faith  and  doubt  not  ye 
shall  say  unto  this  mountain,  Be  thou  removed 
and  be  thou  cast  into  the  sea,  and  it  shall  be 
done." 

Jesus  inherited  figurative  language  from  his 
great  predecessors.  His  favorite  title  for  him- 
self, Son  of  Man,  he  borrowed  from  Ezekiel. 
He  delighted  in  the  powerful  language  and 
sublime  imagery  of  Amos  and  Hosea,  of 
Isaiah  and  Jeremiah.  He  bore  aloft  their 
torch  and  replenished  it  with  fragrant  and  ex- 
haustless  oil.  He  drew  from  books  and  nature. 
He  was  a  great  self-educated  poet,  like  Burns 
and  Bunyan,  not  spoiled  by  the  super-refine- 
ments of  the  schools. 


CHRIST  AS  A  TEACHER  71 

Jesus  is  the  greatest  of  all  prophets,  not  only 
as  a  teacher  of  divine  truth,  but  even  in  the 
secondary  and  relatively  unimportant  character 
of  a  prophet,  that  of  a  predicter  of  the  course 
of  events.  One  of  the  most  wonderful  of  the 
prophecies  is,  "Blessed  are  the  meek:  for  they 
shall  inherit  the  earth."  The  ravenous  wolf 
and  the  blood-thirsty  tiger  are  almost  extermi- 
nated, while  the  sheep  and  the  cow  are  pos- 
sessing the  former  habitations  of  the  wild 
beasts.  So  violent  and  dishonest  men  are  play- 
ing an  ever-dwindling  part  in  human  history, 
while  the  upright,  the  kindly  and  the  helpful 
are  constantly  becoming  stronger  and  more 
numerous.  The  robber  baron  is  extinct,  the 
bandit  is  a  vanishing  figure.  The  milder  forms 
of  chicanery  in  business  have  taken  the  place 
of  brute  violence,  and  even  these  are  sure 
eventually  to  be  discarded  as  both  wicked  and 
foolish,  as  men  learn  from  Jesus  that  happiness 
and  greatness  are  attained  only  by  service. 
Jesus  taught  men  to  please  God  by  doing  good 
to  man.  He  softened  the  stern  outlines  in 
which  many  previous  prophets  had  pictured 
Jehovah.  He  took  away  the  anger  and  the 
jealousy  and  the  clouds  and  darkness.  For  the 
impassive  Creator  and  the  inexorable  Judge  he 
substituted  the  Father  in  heaven,  pitying  and 


72       THE   CARPENTER   PROPHET 

loving  all  his  human  children.  Some  men 
have  impressed  themselves  upon  the  world  by 
sheer  force  of  intellect,  other  men  of  little 
intellectual  power  have  swayed  great  masses 
by  the  fervor  of  their  enthusiasm,  others  have 
charmed  assemblies  by  a  winning  personality, 
by  beauty  of  form  and  face,  by  fascination  of 
voice  and  manner. 

Jesus  united  all  these  elements  of  power. 
His  intellect  astonished  and  his  tenderness 
attracted  men.  He  began  to  preach  in  the 
very  prime  of  his  vigor  and  grace  when  his 
pure  and  healthful  body,  invigorated  by  regular 
labor,  was  able  to  endure  great  exertion  and 
quickly  to  regain  its  elasticity  after  fatigue, 
and  when  his  face  without  having  lost  the 
ineffable  grace  of  youth  had  already  begun  to 
wear  the  noblest  impress  of  manly  dignity. 

I  think  that  to  his  other  attractions  he  added 
the  charm  and  potency  of  a  flexible  and  melo- 
dious voice.  The  voice  is  the  outcome  of  the 
whole  personality,  and  is  often  the  peculiar 
organ  of  its  power. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


MIRACLES 


WoNDpRFUL  as  was  Jesus  as  a  teacher,  his  con- 
temporary fame  was  even  more  largely  due  to 
his  marvelous  acts,  especially  his  cures  of  the 
sick.  As  has  been  the  case  with  most  success- 
ful faith-healers,  the  first  exercise  of  his  power 
was  unsought  and  almost  unconscious.  Shortly 
after  he  began  to  proclaim  repentance,  as  he 
was  preaching  in  the  synagogue  at  Capernaum, 
"a  man  with  an  unclean  spirit,"  a  man,  that  is, 
whose  language  and  gestures  were  indecent 
and  shocking,  interrupted  the  service  by  loud 
outcries.  Jesus  recognized  the  man's  infirmity 
and  double  consciousness.  He  soothed  and 
commanded  him  as  Alexander  the  Great 
soothed  and  commanded  a  fiery  horse,  till  the 
man  became  calm  and  rational.  "And  they 
were  all  amazed,"  as  they  well  might  be. 
"And  immediately  his  fame  spread  abroad 
throughout  all  the  region  round  about  Galilee." 

"And  at  even,  when  the  sun  did  set,  they 
brought  unto  him  all  that  were  diseased,  and 
them   that  were   possessed    with    devils.  .  .  . 

73 


74        THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

And  he  healed  many  that  were  sick  of  divers 
diseases,  and  cast  out  many  devils." 

These  verses  are  from  the  gospel  of  Mark, 
the  first  and  least-embellished  of  the  gospels, 
and  show  the  prevailing  character  of  the  so- 
called  miracles  of  Jesus.  He  undoubtedly  ex- 
erted a  marvelous  and  very  beneficial  power 
over  the  sick.  Contact  with  a  strong  and 
kindly  personality  is  always  exceedingly 
stimulating  and  helpful  to  those  whose  nerves 
are  weak  and  unstrung. 

Hysteria,  melancholia,  paralysis  and  many 
kindred  diseases  have  been  cured  or  alleviated 
by  the  touch  of  healers  of  all  religious  opin- 
ions, and  even  by  that  of  men  without  moral 
earnestness,  if  their  personal  force,  or  rank,  or 
circumstances  roused  the  faith  and  latent  ener- 
gies of  the  sufferers  who  came  to  them  for 
help. 

It  is  not  even  necessary  that  the  healer 
should  be  present  in  person.  Anything  that 
vividly  suggests  him  and  stimulates  the  imag- 
ination of  a  chronic  half-invalid  will  serve  the 
purpose. 

There  is  no  good  reason,  therefore,  to  doubt 
that  Jesus  effected  a  great  many  wonderful 
cures  and  that  his  usual  method  was  to  arouse 
the  sufferer's  own  faith  and  to  stimulate  his 


MIRACLES  75 

dormant  energies.  He  felt  that  he  could  not 
succeed  without  this  co-operation,  for  we  read 
on  several  occasions  that  he  could  do  no 
mighty  works  because  of  the  unbelief  either  of 
the  sick  or  of  their  attendants  and  the  sur- 
rounding multitude. 

Other  cures  seem  to  have  been  effected  by 
the  use  of  simple  remedies,  such  as  the  appli- 
cation of  moist  clay  or  by  repeated  ablutions  in 
cool  waters. 

Jesus  himself  did  not  profess  that  his  cures 
were  different  in  kind  from  those  of  other 
healers.  When  he  was  accused  of  witchcraft, 
and  of  working  by  Satanic  agency,  his  simple 
defense  was,  "If  I  cast  out  devils  by  Beelze- 
bub, by  whom  do  your  children  cast  them  out? 
therefore  they  shall  be  your  judges."  The 
cures  of  Jesus  were  doubtless  more  numerous 
and  more  wonderful  than  those  of  any  contem- 
porary or  subsequent  rival;  but,  if  attention 
had  not  been  held  to  them  by  his  remarkable 
teaching  and  sublime  character,  they  would 
soon  have  been  lost  in  the  oblivion  that  has 
overtaken  the  other  wonder-workers. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  also  that  every 
wonderful  thing  is  exaggerated,  and  the  more 
wonderful  it  is  the  greater  the  distortion  of  the 
actual  fact.     The  shadow  of  every  body  is  at 


76       THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

sunrise  taller  than  the  body  itself;  and  so,  in 
the  morning  of  life  or  of  knowledge,  the  rays 
of  fancy  lengthen  every  fact  about  which  they 
play.  Rumor  also  is  a  great  artist,  and  as  a 
report  passes  from  lip  to  lip  it  gathers  new 
positiveness  and  details. 

Many  of  the  so-called  miracles  are  suscep- 
tible of  simple  natural  explanation.  A  good 
example  is  the  stilling  of  the  tempest  on  the 
Sea  of  Galilee.  The  disciples  are  terrified  at 
the  violence  of  the  storm,  but  Jesus  is  calm  and 
confident,  and  when  the  squall  blows  over  as 
quickly  as  it  rose  they  think  that  he  allayed 
the  winds  and  the  waves  and  not  merely  the 
agitation  of  their  minds. 

The  miraculous  draught  of  the  fishes  and  the 
multiplication  of  the  loaves  are  probably 
poetic  expressions  of  man's  wonder  and  grati- 
tude at  the  way  in  which  his  wants  are  so  often 
and  so  strangely  supplied. 

The  original  form  of  the  miracle  of  the 
turning  of  water  into  wine  recorded  by  John 
may  have  been  only  such  a  figure  of  speech. 
It  may  have  meant  only  that  the  presence  of 
Jesus  so  heightened  the  joy  of  the  occasion 
that  water  tasted  as  good  as  wine. 

Few  commentators  take  with  absolute  literal- 
ness  the  words  of  Deuteronomy  29:  5:  "I  have 


MIRACLES  77 

led  you  forty  years  in  the  wilderness;  your 
clothes  are  not  waxen  old  upon  you,  and  thy 
shoe  is  not  waxen  old  upon  thy  foot,"  or  those 
of  Psalm  78:  23-25,  "God  had  opened  the  doors 
of  heaven,  and  had  rained  down  manna  upon 
them  to  eat,  and  had  given  them  of  the  corn 
of  heaven.     Man  did  eat  angels'  food." 

The  crude  fancy  of  some  illustrators  of  Scrip- 
ture has  led  them  to  represent  "the  wall  of 
waters  on  the  right  and  on  the  left"  of  the 
Israelites  as  standing  upright  like  two  walls  of 
brick,  though  the  verse  preceding  says  that 
"the  Lord  caused  the  sea  to  go  back  by  a 
strong  east  wind  all  that  night";  and  the 
phenomenon  of  great  tracts  of  shore  being 
now  covered  and  now  bare,  according  to  the 
force  and  direction  of  the  wind,  is  a  very 
familiar  one.  In  Exodus  19:  4,  God,  through 
Moses,  declares:  "Ye  have  seen  what  I  did 
unto  the  Egyptians,  and  how  I  bore  you  on 
eagles'  wings,  and  brought  you  unto  myself"; 
and,  if  this  passage  were  interpreted  with  the 
same  slavish  literalness  as  some  others,  it 
would  be  the  orthodox  opinion  that  at  one 
stage  of  his  journey  every  Israelite  was  carried 
through  the  air  on  the  back  of  an  eagle,  and  it 
would  be  quite  as  easy  to  accept  this  view  as  it 
is  to  believe  that  Jonah  was  safely  carried  to 


78       THE    CARPENTER  PROPHET 

shore  in  a  whale,  or  that  Elijah  was  fed  with 
bread  and  flesh  by  ravens. 

Many  of  the  accounts  of  miracles  have  been 
colored  by  the  very  natural  desire  of  the  dis- 
ciples of  Jesus  of  the  second  or  third  genera- 
tion to  make  his  deeds  as  wonderful  as  those 
of  Moses  or  Elijah.  Indeed,  the  writers  of  the 
gospels  very  frequently  avow  their  eagerness 
to  find  in  his  acts  the  fulfillment  of  prophecies 
concerning  the  Messiah,  and  a  reference  to  the 
passages  will  also  show  how  little  in  many 
cases  the  so-called  fulfillment  is  like  the  orig- 
inal prophecy.  This  is  not  imposture  or  wilful 
deception.  It  is  the  enthusiasm  of  unquestion- 
ing faith.  At  most,  these  stories  only  attribute 
to  him  works  which  the  writers  believed  that 
he  could  have  done  and  which  they  regarded  as 
suitable  to  his  character. 

Something  analogous  is  found  in  the  Miracle 
Plays  of  the  Middle  Ages,  in  Bunyan's  Pil- 
grim's Progress  and  in  Paradise  Lost,  in  all 
of  which  God  and  Jesus  are  represented  as 
saying  and  doing  whatever  writers  thought 
appropriate  in  the  circumstances. 

The  gospel  of  John  is  the  latest  of  the  four 
gospels  and  this  dramatic  tendency  is  even 
more  marked  in  it  than  in  the  narratives  of  the 
preceding   evangelists.      In   fact   there   is    an 


MIRACLES  79 

ascending  scale  of  the  marvelous  in  which 
Matthew  and  Mark  represent  the  lowest  stage, 
Luke,  a  higher  one,  and  John  the  extreme 
degree.  The  miracles  recorded  in  Matthew 
and  Mark  are  either  works  of  healing  or  exag- 
gerated accounts  of  natural  occurrences.  The 
only  account  in  Matthew  and  Mark  of  the 
resurrection  of  the  dead  is  that  of  the  raising 
of  the  daughter  of  Jairus,  and,  as  Jesus  was 
called  while  the  girl  was  still  alive  and  went 
immediately  (see  Mark  5),  her  recovery  may 
have  been  a  natural  resuscitation. 

Luke,  who  writes  later  and  with  more 
deliberate  literary  art,  tells  a  story  of  the  re- 
calling to  life  of  the  son  of  the  widow  of  Nain 
as  he  was  being  carried  to  his  burial;  while 
John  caps  the  climax  by  telling  of  the  resurrec- 
tion of  Lazarus  after  he  had  lain  in  the  grave 
four  days. 

Trances  and  catalepsies  have  lasted  much 
longer  than  four  days,  and  it  is  possible  that 
the  animation  of  Lazarus  was  merely  suspended. 
The  article  on  death  in  Chambers' s  Encyclopedia 
says  that  "a  French  author  of  the  last  century, 
Bruhier,  in  a  work,  On  the  Danger  of  Pre- 
mature Interment^  collected  fifty-four  cases  of 
persons  buried  alive,  four  of  persons  dissected 
while  still   living,    fifty-three   of   persons  who 


8o       THE  CARPENTER   PROPHET 

recovered  without  assistance  after  they  were 
laid  in  their  coffins,  and  seventy-two  falsely 
considered  dead." 

But  there  is  no  probability  that  the  case  of 
Lazarus  was  like  any  of  these.  John  represents 
the  resurrection  of  Lazarus  as  the  immediate 
occasion  of  the  arrest  and  condemnation  of, 
Jesus.  He  says  that  some  of  the  Jews  "went 
their  ways  to  the  Pharisees  and  told  them  what 
things  Jesus  had  done.  Then  gathered  the 
chief  priests  and  the  Pharisees  a  council, 
and  said,  What  do  we?  for  this  man  doeth 
many  miracles.  If  we  let  him  thus  alone,  all 
men  will  believe  on  him:  and  the  Romans 
shall  come  and  take  away  both  our  place  and 
nation"  (John  11:46-48). 

Again  in  the  next  chapter  this  miracle  is  said 
to  have  caused  much  of  the  enthusiasm  with 
which  Jesus  was  received  when  he  made 
his  triumphal  entry  into  Jerusalem.  John's 
words  are,  "The  people  therefore  that  was  with 
him  when  he  called  Lazarus  out  of  his  grave, 
and  raised  him  from  the  dead,  bore  record. 
For  this  cause  the  people  also  met  him,  for 
that  they  heard  that  he  had  done  this  miracle. 
The  Pharisees  therefore  said  among  them- 
selves, "Perceive  ye  how  ye  prevail  nothing? 
behold  the  world  is  gone  after  him." 


MIRACLES  8x 

Now  if  this  account  is  true,  is  it  not  very 
singular  that  Matthew  who  relates  twenty 
miracles  and  Mark  who  gives  an  account  of 
eighteen,  though  they  speak  of  curing  men  of 
palsy,  of  leprosy,  of  blindness,  and  of  the  rais- 
ing of  the  daughter  of  Jairus  when  she  was 
thought  dead,  is  it  not  singular  that,  speaking 
as  they  do  of  so  many  minor  acts  of  power, 
they  should  have  omitted  all  reference  to  this 
miracle,  the  most  stupendous  one  of  all?  Is  it 
not  much  more  likely  that  the  unknown  author 
of  the  so-called  gospel  of  John  invented  the 
story  of  Lazarus,  than  that  Matthew,  the 
apostle  and  companion  of  Jesus,  who,  if  the 
resurrection  of  Lazarus  occurred,  must  have 
witnessed  it  with  the  other  apostles,  forgot  all 
about  it  or  thought  it  too  unimportant  to  be 
mentioned? 

The  gospel  of  John  is  so  unlike  the  other 
three  gospels  in  its  account  of  the  language 
and  the  acts  of  Jesus,  and  of  the  nature  of  his 
person  and  claims,  that  it  seems  much  more 
probable  that  it  is  the  effort  of  some  writer  of 
the  second  century  to  oppose  Gnosticism  and 
convince  unbelievers  than  that  it  was  really  the 
work  of  the  apostle  John. 

But  whoever  may  be  their  authors,  all  the 
gospels  show  the  same  characteristics  as  the 


82        THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

later  biographies  and  eulogies  of  Jesus.  The 
lives  of  Christ  by  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke  and 
John  were  written  in  the  same  way  as  this  or 
any  other  life  of  Christ.  In  each  case  the 
writer  took  a  preceding  report  which  was 
assumed  to  be  true,  and  tried  to  make  his  tale 
more  clear  and  interesting  by  arranging  the 
incidents  in  the  most  effective  order,  by  sup- 
plying further  details  and  by  conjecturing  the 
motives  and  feelings  of  the  various  speakers. 
Every  preacher  does  the  same  thing  in  perfect 
good  faith,  and  those  who  do  it  most  vividly 
and  effectively  are  the  most  popular.  It  is  a 
very  noble  and  beautiful  characteristic  of  man 
that  leads  him  to  adorn  and  idealize  whatever 
he  loves  and  venerates. 

One  of  the  commonest  defenses  of  the  myths 
and  legends  that  have  grown  up  around  the 
life  of  Christ  is  that  they  could  not  have  been 
invented,  and  that  they  transcend  the  power  of 
the  imagination.  The  argument  is  foolish  and 
tantamount  to  denying  that  there  are  any 
myths  and  legends  at  all,  whereas  they  are  one 
of  the  earliest,  most  abundant,  and  most  per- 
sistent forms  of  literature. 

But  even  supposing  for  a  moment  that  all  the 
accounts  of  miracles  were  literally  true,  they 
would  be  no  proof  whatever  of  the  deity  of 


MIRACLES  83 

Jesus.  They  are  not  more  wonderful  or  better 
authenticated  than  the  works  attributed  to 
Moses  and  to  Elijah.  Moses  turns  a  rod  into 
a  serpent,  he  smites  the  river  with  it  and  the 
water  becomes  blood,  he  waves  it  in  the  air 
and  summons  swarms  of  flies  and  locusts,  he 
stretches  it  forth  and  causes  a  storm  of  thunder 
and  hail,  he  lifts  his  hand  toward  heaven  and 
brings  darkness  at  noon-day,  he  smites  the 
flinty  rock  and  the  refreshing  waters  gush 
forth,  he  lifts  up  his  rod  and  divides  the  sea, 
and  stretches  it  out  again  and  the  obedient 
waters  return  to  their  place.  Surely  this  is  a 
sovereignty  over  the  elements  far  greater  than 
any  that  is  attributed  to  Jesus  in  the  gospels, 
yet  no  one  attempts  to  prove  by  it  that  Moses 
was  God.  Wonderful  power  he  possessed,  and 
gloriously  have  poetry  and  legend  magnified  it, 
but  it  was  human  and  delegated  power  like  that 
of  Jesus,  who  said,  "I  can  of  mine  own  self  do 
nothing." 

Elijah,  we  are  told,  was  a  man  subject  to 
passions  like  our  own,  and  he  prayed  earnestly 
that  it  might  not  rain;  and  it  rained  not  on  the 
earth  by  the  space  of  three  years  and  six 
months.  And  he  prayed  again,  and  the  heaven 
gave  rain,  and  the  earth  brought  forth  her  fruit 
(James  5:  17,  18.     See  also  i  Kings  17:  i). 


84        THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

According  to  another  legend,  Elijah  took  his 
mantle  and  wrapped  it  together  and  smote  the 
waters  of  the  Jordan,  and  they  were  divided 
hither  and  thither,  so  that  Elijah  and  Elisha 
went  over  on  dry  ground.  Elijah  called  down 
fire  from  heaven,  which  burned  up  two  captains 
and  two  companies  of  fifty  soldiers  each,  who 
had  been  sent  to  arrest  him.  Elijah  restored 
a  dead  child  to  life  (i  Kings  17). 

Elisha,  the  successor  of  Elijah,  is  also  said  to 
have  brought  to  life  again  the  son  of  the 
Shunammite  woman  (2  Kings  4). 

It  is  narrated  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
that  Peter  prayed  and  that  the  dead  Tabitha 
opened  her  eyes  and  sat  up,  and  was  presented 
alive  to  the  company  of  mourners. 

These  narratives  have  an  important  bearing 
upon  the  credibility  of  the  accounts  of  mir- 
acles in  the  gospels.  If  the  gospel  miracles 
stood  alone,  they  would  be  discredited  only  by 
the  observations  of  men  of  science  and  by  com- 
mon experience  of  the  laws  of  nature  and  the 
powers  of  man.  As  it  is,  any  one  who  accepts 
the  gospel  miracles  ought  in  consistency  to 
accept  those  of  the  Old  Testament.  If  he  does 
so,  he  will  find  it  impossible  to  draw  any  line 
of  division  between  the  Old  Testament 
miracles   and    those   of    the   Apocrypha,    and 


MIRACLES  85 

those  attributed  to  many  saints  and  martyrs  of 
the  early,  medieval  and  modern  church. 

If  he  can  believe  that  Elisha  made  an  iron 
ax-head  to  swim  (2  Kings  6),  or  that  Shadrach, 
Meshach  and  Abednego  walked  unhurt  in  a 
burning  fiery  furnace,  and  came  forth  without 
a  smell  of  fire  upon  their  garments  (Daniel  3), 
and  that  an  iron  gate  opened  of  its  own  accord 
to  let  Peter  pass  through  (Acts  12),  there  is  no 
good  reason  why  he  should  reject  any  alleged 
miracles  recorded  anywhere. 

Without  professing  to  know  all  or  perhaps  a 
thousandth  part  of  the  processes  and  possi- 
bilities of  nature,  we  ought  to  be  able  to  make 
up  our  minds  that  such  stories  are  legends 
pure  and  simple.  The  question  in  its  simplest 
form  is,  Are  we  and  our  children  to  accept  the 
teachings  of  modern  science,  are  we  to  believe 
our  geographies,  and  books  of  chemistry  and 
physics  as  to  the  uniformity  of  natural  laws, 
or  are  we  to  follow  legends  and  believe  that 
sometimes  fire  does  not  burn  unprotected  flesh, 
that  the  law  of  gravitation  does  not  always 
act,  and  that  the  law  of  the  inertia  of  inorganic 
matter  is  intermittent? 

It  is  as  necessary  to  make  this  intellectual,  as 
to  make  any  moral,  choice.  As  no  man  can  serve 
God  and  Mammon,  so  no  man  can  both  serve 


86        THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

and  renounce  reason.  He  must  be  loyal  to  his 
reason  as  far  as  it  can  guide  him,  or  else  he 
must  drift  helplessly  upon  the  sea  of  supersti- 
tion without  chart  or  compass. 

Sermons  about  miracles,  like  other  marvel- 
ous stories,  are  often  very  amusing,  but  when  the 
preacher  gravely  argues  for  their  truthfulness 
it  makes  the  cynical  laugh  and  the  judicious 
grieve.  Mirum  est  quod  non  rideat  Jiamspex.  It 
is  a  wonder  that  the  preachers  themselves  do 
not  laugh  when  they  repeat  these  absurdities. 
Yet  some  good  people  cling  to  them  with  des- 
perate tenacity.  Miracles  are  to  some  the 
very  anchor  of  their  hope. 

If  Jesus  was  not  miraculously  born,  did  not 
work  miracles  and  did  not  rise  from  the  dead, 
they  are  afraid  that  his  teachings  may  not  be 
true.  It  is  a  needless  fear.  Indeed,  the 
ground  of  alarm  is  in  the  opposite  direction. 
In  the  present  state  of  knowledge  and  opinion, 
any  dogma  that  is  linked  to  the  supernatural 
(except  as  all  God's  works  are  supernatural)  is 
thereby  weakened.  It  would  breed  suspicion 
as  to  the  truth  of  the  plainest  demonstrations 
of  geometry,  if  the  text-books  of  the  science 
were  to  contain  similar  fables  about  the  lives 
of  the  great  geometricians. 

In  this  discussion  God's  power  is  not  for  one 


MIRACLES  87 

moment  in  question.  God  can  do  whatsoever 
he  will.  He  can  reverse  or  suspend  every  law 
that  he  has  impressed  upon  matter.  It  is  to 
my  mind  blasphemous  and  ridiculous  to  think 
otherwise.  The  Creator  of  all  things  can  of 
course  annihilate  or  change  all  things.  The 
question  is  not  what  he  can  do,  but  what  he 
actually  does.  In  the  great  Ruler  of  the  uni- 
verse and  Father  of  us  all  is  "no  variableness, 
neither  shadow  of  turning." 

Very  little  reflection  will,  I  think,  show  that 
this  view  is  more  consistent  with  the  power, 
wisdom  and  goodness  of  God  than  any  other. 
The  uniformity  of  nature  enables  man  to  dis- 
cover her  laws  and  forces  and  to  make  them 
serve  him.  They  daily  load  him  with  bene- 
fits, and  deceive  him  by  no  false  promise,  yet 
they  constantly  check  his  presumption  and 
remind  him  of  his  dependence  by  the  swift  and 
inexorable  punishment  of  every  violation. 
They  are  adapted  to  stimulate  man's  intelli- 
gence and  to  awaken  his  wonder  gratitude  and 
adoration.  So  far  as  our  knowledge  goes  the 
same  cause  always  produces  the  same  effect, 
and  as  a  result  of  this  principle  the  universe  is 
a  majestic  and  stable  edifice,  truly  a  temple  of 
omnipotent  wisdom  and  goodness.  Suppose  it 
otherwise.     Imagine  that  the  same  cause  some- 


88      THE  CARPENTER    PROPHET 

times  produced  a  different  effect,  and  imme- 
diately the  universe  would  become  a  flimsy 
structure,  with  shifting  foundations,  with  lean- 
ing wails,  swaying  and  tottering  amid  the 
winds  of  chance.  If  there  were  no  uniformity 
in  law,  there  could  be  no  acquisition  of  knowl- 
edge, no  growth  of  wisdom,  no  development  of 
virtue.  The  physical  world  would  become  a 
chaos  and  involve  the  moral  world  in  its 
ruin. 

Suppose  that,  instead  of  this  majestic  and 
beneficent  uniformity  which  we  have  learned 
to  trust,  God  should  exempt  certain  men  from 
the  operation  of  his  laws  and  should  give  them 
special  power  over  natural  forces  whenever 
they  desired  it.  What  would  be  the  result? 
The  inevitable  deterioration  of  all  such  men. 
While  other  men  were  developing  their  minds 
by  careful  study  and  their  bodies  by  strenuous 
exertions,  these  men  with  a  power  greater  than 
that  given  by  the  purse  of  Fortunatus  or  the 
lamp  of  Aladdin,  though  they  could  perform 
prodigies,  would  remain  ignorant  children. 

If  every  saint,  prophet,  missionary  and 
preacher  could  by  prayer  suspend  or  modify 
the  laws  when  he  chose  to  do  so  to  further  the 
gospel  or  secure  his  own  safety,  the  world 
would  soon  be  in  confusion.      The  desire  to 


MIRACLES  89 

usurp  this  control  over  natural   forces  was  a 
temptation  which  Jesus  twice  rejected. 

The  good  luck  of  slave  ships  and  the  ill  luck 
of  missionary  ships  are  proverbs  among  sailors, 
and  their  beliefs  are,  I  think,  easily  and  natu- 
rally explained.  God  has  no  partiality  for 
slavers  and  no  prejudice  against  missionaries. 
He  lets  all  ships  float  or  sink  according  as 
they  are  built  and  sailed.  A  slave  dealer 
never  expects  any  favors  from  providence. 
He  knows  that  if  he  is  to  be  safe  he  must  watch 
wind  and  sea,  he  must  keep  a  sharp  look-out 
ahead  and  a  good  man  at  the  helm.  He 
expects  no  friendly  interposition  to  save  him 
if  his  ship  is  unseaworthy,  undermanned,  or 
overloaded. 

But  in  the  minds  of  many  people  a  mission- 
ary ship  is  specially  guarded.  It  has  been 
built  by  devotion  and  self-sacrifice,  it  is  going 
upon  a  good  work,  pious  men  on  board  daily 
commit  themselves  and  their  associates  to  God 
in  prayer.  All  this,  though  right  and  laudable 
in  itself,  has  a  tendency  to  lull  vigilance  and  to 
diffuse  a  false  feeling  of  security  which  only 
sharp  lessons  can  dissipate.  A  missionary 
ship  is  often  too  small  for  the  work  it  has  to 
do  because  there  was  not  money  enough  to 
make    it    larger,     repairs     are     delayed     and 


90       THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

neglected  for  the  same  reason,  its  officers  and 
crew  are  sometimes  chosen  for  their  piety 
rather  than  their  skill,  and  yet  when  disaster 
comes  some  people  wonder  at  the  mysterious 
providence. 

It  is  evident  that  if  God  did  not  enforce  his 
laws  by  sharp  and  salutary  punishment  they 
would  be  transgressed  and  neglected  more  and 
more.  If,  for  instance,  a  missionary  ship  were 
always  preserved  from  harm,  no  matter  how  it 
was  built,  manned,  and  sailed,  missionary 
ships  would  certainly  soon  become  a  very 
peculiar  class  of  vessels.  The  apostle  James 
states  the  true  principles  when  he  says:  "Who- 
soever shall  keep  the  whole  law,  yet  offend  in 
one  point,  he  is  guilty  of  all."  A  man's  good- 
ness in  one  respect  does  not  absolve  him  in  any 
other,  and  his  badness  in  one  respect  does  not 
punish  him  in  any  other. 

"Whatsoever  a  man  soweth  that  shall  he  also 
reap."  A  profane  man,  a  thief  and  a  liar,  if  he 
is  a  skilled  and  industrious  farmer,  will  have 
better  crops  than  his  pious  neighbor  who  prays 
often  and  sincerely,  but  who  is  weak  in  body, 
poor  in  judgment  and  procrastinating  in  habit. 
Do  not  understand  me  to  say  that  there  is  any 
natural  alliance  between  bad  morals  and  good 
farming  or  good  anything  else.     On  the  con- 


MIRACLES  91 

trary,  virtues  are  generally  found  in  clusters, 
yet  there  are  frequent  and  strange  exceptions 
to  this  rule,  and  few  persons  possess  all  the 
virtues  in  equal  development. 

It  is  sacrilege  to  destroy  a  venerable  ruin,  it 
is  infamous  to  compel  men  to  live  in  it. 
Accounts  of  miracles  cannot  of  course  be  elimi- 
nated from  the  ancient  literature,  but  they 
should  always  be  explained  in  the  light  of 
modern  knowledge.  It  may  be  said  that  chil- 
dren could  not  understand  the  explanations, 
but  they  could  accept  them  on  authority,  as 
they  accept  other  truths  which  they  do  not 
understand.  They  cannot  understand  astron- 
omy, but  they  are  not  on  that  account  now 
taught  that  the  sun  revolves  around  the  earth. 
Nor,  though  they  cannot  understand  how  fairy 
tales  grow,  are  they  now  taught  that  they  are 
true. 

Perhaps  the  most  prominent  reason  for  the 
irrational  persistence  in  untenable  opinions  by 
all  religious  sects  is  the  inherited  belief  that 
the  laws  of  nature  are  capricious  and  may  be 
modified  by  incantations  and  ceremonies. 
Clergymen  have  now  given  up  the  belief  that 
they  can  themselves  work  miracles,  but  they 
have  not  yet  surrendered  the  equally  untenable 
belief  that  other  men  in  earlier  times  could  do 


92      THE   CARPENTER    PROPHET 

so.  The  faith-healer  is  the  legitimate  suc- 
cessor of  the  Indian  medicine-man,  the  African 
witch-doctor  and  the  Jewish  miracle  worker. 
In  him  creed  and  practice  are  consistent.  In 
the  ordinary  Christian  who  believes  in  the 
miracles  of  a  former  day,  but  thinks  miracles 
impossible  now,  creed  and  daily  life  are  illog- 
ically  separated. 

Genesis,  Deuteronomy,  the  stories  of  Elijah 
and  Daniel,  the  writings  of  Matthew,  Mark, 
Luke  and  John  have  bound  men  as  in  a  spell 
and  rendered  them  insensible  to  science  and 
reason.  Imagination  has  been  stronger  than 
sight.  Tales  of  miracles  have  prevailed  over 
daily  observation  of  the  immutability  of  law. 

Paul,  though  he  wrote  so  lAany  letters  and 
speaks  in  such  detail  about  his  life,  never  says 
that  he  raised  any  dead  or  cured  any  sick 
people.  He  besought  the  Lord  thrice  for  the 
removal  of  his  own  "thorn  in  the  flesh,"  and 
got  only  the  answer,  "My  grace  is  sufficient 
for  thee."  He  had  no  exemption  from  disease 
and  pain,  nor  could  he  heal  his  friends,  as 
appears  from  the  letter  to  Timothy,  in  which 
he  says:  "Trophimus  have  I  left  at  Miletum 
sick"  (2  Tim.  4:20).  His  judgment  not  only 
in  regard  to  the  stories  in  the  Apocrypha  of 
Bel  and  the  Dragon,  of  Tobit,  and  of  Judith, 


MIRACLES  93 

but  of  the  legends  both  in  the  Old  and  in  the 
New  Testament  is  expressed  in  his  words  to 
Timothy:  "Refuse  profane  and  old  wives' 
fables,  and  exercise  thyself  rather  unto  godli- 
ness." 

The  mere  fact  that  there  is  no  argument 
drawn  from  miracles  by  any  of  the  prophets  or 
apostles  is  enough  to  show  that  the  accounts 
of  them  elsewhere  are  mere  folk-lore  and 
poetry  which  the  great  spiritual  leaders  of  the 
church  regarded  as  crude  embellishment  more 
likely  to  do  harm  than  good,  just  as  enlight- 
ened Catholic  bishops  are  now  everywhere 
abolishing  many  of  the  more  childish  cere- 
monies of  their  church.  Only  in  backward 
countries  are  the  images  of  saints  now  carried 
from  church  to  church  to  visit  each  other,  and 
that  of  Saint  Peter  taken  to  the  sea  to  catch 
the  first  fish  and  insure  a  good  season  by  bless- 
ing the  nets  and  boats  of  a  community.  Dog- 
matism is  offensive.  The  verdict  should  not 
be  given  till  the  facts  are  known  and  the  evi- 
dence clear.  But  extreme  skepticism  as  to 
the  powers  of  the  human  mind  to  discover 
truth,  and  extreme  timidity  and  procrastination 
in  proclaiming  the  results  of  investigation  are, 
if  less  offensive,  far  more  injurious  to  man- 
kind.     The  properties  of  a  triangle  are  not 


94      THE   CARPENTER   PROPHET 

changed  by  mere  enlargement  of  the  scale,  and 
so  an  induction  is  often  in  no  way  strengthened 
by  the  continued  addition  of  new  facts.  It  is 
not  necessary  to  count  the  names  of  all  the 
men  and  all  the  women  on  the  registry  of  mar- 
riage to  determine  that  in  a  monogamous 
country  there  are  as  many  marriages  of  one  sex 
as  of  the  other.  The  law  courts  are  satisfied 
with  the  testimony  of  a  few  reputable  wit- 
nesses, and  do  not  require  the  evidence  of  hun- 
dreds to  support  a  probable  and  uncontroverted 
statement. 

A  little  of  the  same  sort  of  practical  sense 
applied  to  theological  criticism  would  be  very 
helpful.  What  need  is  there  to  pile  up  argu- 
ments from  remote  sources  against  the  credi- 
bility of  the  miracles  or  to  discuss  them  one  by 
one  when  they  are  flatly  opposed  to  the  most 
elementary  and  common  knowledge  of  our  age 
and  country? 

We  read  that  King  Hezekiah  tried  to  raise 
the  people  in  his  day  from  superstitious  cere- 
monies to  higher  and  more  spiritual  forms  of 
worship,  and  that,  "he  removed  the  high 
places  and  broke  the  images  and  cut  down  the 
groves,  and  broke  in  pieces  the  brazen  serpent 
that  Moses  had  made:  for  unto  those  days  the 
children  of  Israel  did  burn   incense  to  it:    and 


MIRACLES  95 

he  called  it  Nehushtan,"  that  is,  a  piece  of 
brass. 

Would  that  the  modern  rulers  of  the  church 
had  the  same  courage,  wisdom  and  piety,  and 
would  say  "Nehushtan"  to  every  popular  fable 
which  now  opposes  a  front  of  brass  to  knowl- 
edge, morality  and  religion! 

After  discussing  miracles,  or,  as  he  calls 
them,  "powers,"  Paul  says  there  is  a  more  ex- 
cellent way.  Then  follows  in  the  thirteenth 
chapter  of  First  Corinthians  his  sublime  vision 
of  the  transient  and  permanent  elements  in 
religion.  "Knowledge  shall  vanish  away." 
Or,  as  we  may  paraphrase  his  statement.  Our 
imperfect  science  will  be  superseded  by  new 
discoveries;  but  Christianity  does  not  rest 
upon  our  present  scientific  interpretations,  nor 
can  it  be  destroyed  by  advances  in  knowledge, 
for  it  is  a  spiritual  religion,  and  after  all  intel- 
lectual changes  we  are  sure  that  faith,  hope  and 
charity  will  still  abide.  It  is  the  climax  of 
Paul's  teaching,  his  wisest  and  deepest  word. 


CHAPTER    IX 

PRAYER 

The  foregoing  view  of  miracles  does  not  in 
any  way  deny  or  antagonize  the  belief  in  the 
efficacy  and  duty  of  prayer.  All  great  works 
are  done  in  a  prayerful  spirit,  and  usually  with 
the  accompaniment  of  conscious  and  formal 
invocation. 

Belief  in  prayer  is  inseparably  connected 
with  belief  in  God;  and  belief  in  God  is  the 
most  rational,  universal,  and  deeply-rooted  of 
all  religious  beliefs.  "  Ex  nihilo  nihil  fit."  There 
can  be  no  creation  without  a  Creator. 

Nothing  in  the  uniformity  of  natural  law 
prevents  man  from  talking  with  his  fellow  man, 
and  influencing  him  for  good  or  evil,  and  noth- 
ing in  nature  even  remotely  suggests  any  im- 
pediment to  communication  between  God  and 
man.  "Ye  fools,  when  will  ye  be  wise?  He 
that  planted  the  ear,  shall  he  not  hear?  he  that 
formed  the  eye,  shall  he  not  see?"  (Psalm 
94:  9)- 

Charles  H.  Spurgeon,  the  great  preacher, 
96 


PRAYER  97 

was  once  asked  if  he  expected  to  recognize  his 
friends  in  heaven.  His  brief  and  sensible 
answer  was,  "I  recognize  them  now,  and  I  ex- 
pect to  have  as  much  sense  in  heaven  as  I  have 
at  present." 

It  is  impossible  to  believe  that  if  God  hears 
the  humble,  believing  prayers  of  man,  he  alto- 
gether disregards  them.  Better  have  no  belief 
in  God  at  all  than  an  opinion  of  him  so  un- 
worthy. God  is  truth,  and  does  not  deceive 
us.  God  is  love,  and  does  not  forget  us  for  a 
moment,  or  cease  to  sympathize  with  our  every 
trial.  He  is  our  Father,  and  is  training  us  in 
the  way  he  knows  is  best,  however  mysterious 
it  may  sometimes  seem  to  us.  He  is  as  much 
better  than  any  earthly  father  as  he  is  stronger 
and  wiser,  and  the  question  of  Jesus  can  be 
answered  in  only  one  way:  "If  ye  then  being 
evil  know  how  to  give  good  gifts  unto  your 
children;  how  much  more  shall  your  heavenly 
Father  give  the  holy  spirit  to  them  that  ask 
him?" 

That  God  answers  sincere  prayer  for  help  to 
live  righteously  is  one  of  the  very  few  tenets 
of  the  church  that  will  bear  the  test  of  the  "^3 
omnibus^  semper ^  et  ubique"  rule.  That  God 
pardons  the  sins  of  the  truly  penitent,  that  he 
gives  power  to  resist  temptation  to  those  who 


98        THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

sincerely  seek  it,  that  he  gives  inward  joy  and 
peace  to  those  who  walk  uprightly,  is  the  uni- 
versal testimony  of  Christians  of  every  age  and 
country.  There  is  no  counter  probability. 
Many  of  the  well-known  phenomena  of  con- 
version cannot  be  explained  by  mere  reflex 
action  upon  the  mind  of  man.  There  is  an 
immediate  and  often  an  abounding  joy  arising 
from  the  consciousness  of  pardon.  It  is  in 
many  cases,  I  think,  as  strong,  clear,  and  trust- 
worthy as  the  consciousness  of  identity  or  any 
other  intuition. 

Nor  is  it  rational  to  doubt  the  efficacy  of 
prayer  in  assisting  man  to  live  a  righteous  life. 
The  cases  in  which  men  who  before  they  began 
to  pray  were  impure,  dishonest  and  quarrel- 
some, and  who  by  the  habit  of  prayer  have  been 
enabled  to  live  pure,  honest,  peaceable  and 
benevolent  lives  are  numerous  and  well- 
attested,  and  cannot  be  denied,  however  they 
may  be  accounted  for.  There  was  a  time  when 
every  Methodist  church  could  show  many 
such  cases.  Such  wonderfully-transformed 
and  wonderfully-sustained  characters  are  now 
common  in  the  Salvation  Army.  Such  power 
still  attends  some  evangelists,  and  will 
always  attend  those  who  do  not  shun  "to 
declare    the     whole   counsel     of    God,"    and 


PRAYER  99 

whose  own  lives  are  consistent  with  their 
teaching. 

But  omnipotent  as  sincere  prayer  is,  the 
mere  service  of  the  lips  in  which  the  heart  is 
not  engaged  is  of  little  use  to  man  and  of  little 
merit  in  the  sight  of  God.  Real  prayer  and 
sin,  recognized  as  such  by  the  conscience,  can- 
not long  co-exist,  for  either  prayer  will  kill  the 
sin  or  the  sin  will  kill  the  prayer. 

The  necessity  and  the  value  of  prayer  are 
not  only  facts  of  Christian  consciousness,  but 
are  supported  by  the  convictions  of  our  com- 
mon humanity  in  every  age  and  country. 


CHAPTER    X 

THE   VISIT   TO   NAZARETH 

Not  long  after  the  opening  of  his  public 
ministry  Jesus  made  a  visit  to  his  old  home  at 
Nazareth.  He  had  suddenly  become  great  and 
famous,  but  it  was  not  an  ostentatious  desire 
to  dazzle  his  former  associates  that  led  him  to 
the  little  village  in  the  mountains.  It  was  the 
strongest  and  purest  of  natural  instincts,  the 
yearning  for  home.  Doubtless  he  came 
primarily  to  see  his  mother  and  his  brothers 
and  sisters.  He  wanted  also  to  see  his  old 
friends  and  to  look  again  upon  the  scenes  in- 
separably associated  with  the  early  hopes  and 
visions  which  had  now  in  some  measure  become 
realities.  His  heart  had  often  burned  within 
him  in  the  old  workshop  and  upon  the  moun- 
tain's brow,  as  he  had  mused  upon  the  proph- 
ets of  old  and  hoped  some  day  to  tread  in 
their  footsteps. 

Doubtless,  too,  he  wished  to  proclaim  here 

as  elsewhere  his  great  message,  "The  kingdom 

of   heaven    is    at   hand."       If   he   had    not  so 

wished,  it  would  nevertheless  have  been  hard 

too 


THE  VISIT  TO  NAZARETH        loi 

for  him  to  resist  the  importunities  of  his  old 
neighbors,  who  were  curious  to  hear  the  an- 
nouncement which  had  caused  such  excitement 
elsewhere.  When  the  Sabbath  came  and 
Jesus,  as  he  had  been  accustomed,  went  to  the 
synagogue,  everybody  in  the  village  followed. 
The  preliminary  services  were  little  heeded, 
but  there  was  a  great  buzz  of  expectation  when 
Jesus  read  from  the  prophet  Isaiah  a  descrip- 
tion of  the  Messiah  and  his  mission,  and  then 
boldly  affirmed  that  in  himself  that  prophecy 
was  fulfiUe-d. 

For  a  little  while  astonishment  at  his  daring 
and  admiration  of  his  eloquence  were  the  pre- 
dominant feelings  of  his  hearers,  but  these  were 
soon  supplanted  by  unbelief  and  indignation. 
Old  opinions  and  modes  of  thought  are  not 
easily  changed.  In  the  minds  of  men  in  middle 
life  those  whom  they  first  noticed  as  boys  always 
remain  boyish  and  immature.  It  is  only  in  the 
rarest  cases  that  older  people  can  believe  that 
younger  ones  are  wiser  than  themselves  in  any 
really  important  matter.  They  always  look 
patronizingly  on  youngsters,  concede  their 
bodily  activity  and  strength,  and,  more  rarely, 
their  intellectual  promise,  but  they  pity  the 
inexperience  of  youth  and  think  complacently 
of  the  treasures  of  knowledge  that  years  have 


loa   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

brought  to  themselves.  The  old  people  in  the 
synagogue  at  Nazareth  could  not  shake  off 
their  preconceptions.  Jesus  was  to  them  only 
a  forward  youth. 

Perhaps  the  young  men  were  not  much  better 
pleased.  We  all  hear  with  more  complacency 
of  the  success  of  entire  strangers  than  of  our 
own  rivals.  The  success  of  a  soldier  wakens 
the  jealousy  of  a  fellow  soldier,  but  stirs  up  no 
resentment  in  the  breast  of  a  civilian.  The 
lawyer  is  not  stung  by  the  reputation  of  a  phy- 
sician as  he  is  by  the  brilliant  success  of  a 
brother  lawyer  whom  he  knew  in  poverty  and 
obscurity.  If  others  move  forward  faster  than 
we  do,  we  seem  to  ourselves  to  be  going  back, 
and  are  chagrined  and  disappointed  accord- 
ingly. 

The  congregation  at  Nazareth  soon  took 
offence  at  the  presumption  of  Jesus.  They 
said  in  substance.  What  ridiculous  claims  he 
makes!  Is  he  not  a  common  carpenter?  Are 
not  his  brothers  and  sisters  very  ordinary 
people?  How  does  he  dare  to  proclaim  him- 
self a  prophet  and  a  wonder  worker? 

Matthew  and  Mark  say  only  that  the  Naza- 
renes  were  offended  and  that  Jesus  could  effect 
few  cures  there  because  of  the  unbelief  of  the 
people.    Luke  says  that  the  indignation  of  the 


THE  VISIT  TO  NAZARETH       103 

people  was  so  great  that  they  made  an  attempt 
upon  the  life  of  Jesus.  The  mob  took  him  to 
the  brow  of  the  hill  and  was  about  to  throw 
him  down  headlong  when  some  word  or  act  or 
look  deterred  them. 

A  merciful  provision  in  the  old  Jewish  law 
forbade  the  seething  of  a  lamb  in  its  mother's 
milk.  It  would  have  been  sad  indeed  if  this 
Lamb  of  God  had  perished  at  Nazareth. 


CHAPTER  XI     . 

THE  CALLING  OF  THE  DISCIPLES 

Soon  after  Jesus  had  begun  to  preach,  John 
the  Baptist  was  cast  into  prison,  and  from  his 
lonely  dungeon  sent  an  almost  despairing 
inquiry.  Hunger,  cold,  darkness,  solitude  and 
inactivity  soon  shake  the  most  resolute  spirit, 
and  John,  the  bold  prophet  of  the  desert,  had 
wavered  during  his  captivity.  His  solicitude 
was  not  for  his  life  but  for  his  reputation  and 
his  work.  He  wanted  to  know  that  he  had 
not  lived  in  vain,  that  his  message  had  been 
true  and  that  the  kingdom  of  heaven  was  really 
coming  upon  the  earth. 

John  had  been  the  predecessor  of  Jesus  and 
had  been  the  first  to  recognize  his  call  as  a 
prophet.  John  was  his  spiritual  father  and  had 
given  him  the  only  ordination  as  a  preacher 
that  he  ever  received.  For  a  while  they  had 
both  proclaimed  the  same  message.  Now  John 
was  thrown  into  prison,  and  the  most  ordinary 
human  foresight  must  have  made  Jesus  reflect 
that  he,  too,  would  probably  soon  share  the 
same  fate. 

104 


THE  CALLING  OF  THE  DISCIPLES  105 

It  was  another  test  of  his  resolution,  and  he 
did  not  shrink.  Instead  of  lowering  his  tone 
and  becoming  more  politic  and  conciliatory  in 
order  not  to  attract  attention  or  give  offence, 
he  was  obviously  stimulated  to  new  zeal,  for 
Mark  makes  the  imprisonment  of  John  the 
date  of  the  formal  inauguration  of  the  public 
ministry  of  Jesus. 

It  marked  another  stage  in  the  growth  of  his 
conviction  of  his  Messiahship.  As  long  as 
John  was  actively  and  successfully  preaching 
"the  kingdom  of  God,"  Jesus  could  not  feel 
the  same  burden  of  responsibility  as  when  he 
was  left  quite  alone.  But  John  was  now 
silenced,  and  no  other  voice  had  taken  up  his 
message. 

One  who  can  do  a  needed  work  naturally 
feels  that  he  ought  to  do  it,  and  from  that  it 
is  but  a  short  step  to  the  belief  that  he  is  per- 
sonally called  of  God  to  do  it.  So  the  im- 
prisonment and  inability  of  John  made  Jesus 
feel  that  the  progress  of  the  work  depended 
upon  him,  and  he  accordingly  took  measures 
to  extend  and  perpetuate  it. 

A  modern  thinker  who  wishes  to  give  effect 
to  a  theory  or  bring  about  a  reform  has  facilities 
unknown  in  earlier  times.  He  sends  articles 
to  the  newspapers  and  magazines,  or  he  gives 


io6   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

public  lectures  or  he  writes  a  book,  and  in  this 
way  secures  a  full  and  accurate  presentation  of 
his  views.  But  in  earlier  times  teaching  was 
chiefly  oral,  and  in  order  to  prevent  the  speedy 
distortion  of  his  sayings  as  they  passed  from 
mouth  to  mouth  it  was  necessary  for  a  teacher 
to  train  a  body  of  disciples  so  that  they  should 
understand  him  thoroughly  and  lae  able  after 
his  death  to  expound  and  defend  his  doc- 
trines. 

Jesus,  accordingly,  from  out  the  large  num- 
ber of  his  more  constant  auditors  and  followers 
chose  twelve  as  his  special  disciples,  that  he 
might  prepare  them  to  be  his  apostles. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  he  selected  a  large 
proportion  of  fishermen.  The  sea  of  Galilee 
is  relatively  small,  yet  it  is  large  enough  to 
justify  the  words  of  the  Psalmist:  "They  that 
go  down  to  the  sea  in  ships,  that  do  business 
in  great  waters;  these  see  the  works  of  the 
Lord,  and  his  wonders  in  the  deep."  There 
are  no  atheists  among  sailors.  Men  who 
habitually  live  in  the  presence  of  God's  great 
works  are  almost  necessarily  devout.  Atheism 
is  born  in  great  cities  where  men  can  control 
heat  and  cold  and  light  and  darkness.  A 
Nebuchadnezzar  walking  in  security  and  ease 
in  his  capital  may  say  proudly,  "Is  not  this 


THE  CALLING  OF  THE  DISCIPLES  107 

great  Babylon  that  I  have  built?"  but  a  man  in 
a  boat  is  in  a  humbler  mood.  To  a  sailor, 
man's  strength  is  but  little  compared  with  the 
powers  of  wind  and  wave,  and  all  his  works 
seem  small  when  he  stands  beneath  the  stars. 
Jesus  chose  fishermen  because  he  found  them 
strong,  courageous,  straightforward,  and 
devout. 

The  apostles  were  not  all  fishermen,  but 
none  of  them  were  professional  scholars. 
Jesus  had  the  distrust  of  the  schools  and  the 
technically  educated,  which  was  natural  to  a 
self-taught  artisan,  and  his  instinct  was  cor- 
rect. A  long  course  of  literary  training  makes 
men  timid  and  fastidious  in  action.  They  are 
acquainted  with  so  many  precedents,  they  are 
hampered  by  so  many  canons  of  criticism, 
they  are  awed  by  their  knowledge  of  the  vast 
ramifications  of  existing  institutions,  they  re- 
member past  failures, — they  know  too  much, 
and  are  "sicklied  o'er  with  the  pale  cast  of 
thought."  There  is  a  touch  of  Hamlet  in 
almost  every  great  scholar. 

Some  scribes  of  this  sort,  with  the  natural 
curiosity  of  their  class,  were  among  his  con- 
stant attendants,  but  Jesus  chose  none  of  them, 
and  in  the  few  cases  in  which  they  offered 
themselves  he  rejected  them.     He  was  afraid 


io8   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

not  only  of  their  timidity,  but  of  their  sophis- 
tications. Their  old  opinions  would  leaven 
their  new  doctrines. 

The  wise  teacher  did  not  wish  the  apostles 
of  a  spiritual  religion  to  be  men  whose  minds 
were  full  of  ceremonial  superstitions  and  whose 
modes  of  thought  and  action  were  fixed  by  the 
almost  indestructible  tyranny  of  habit.  Ac- 
cordingly he  selected  no  scribes.  He  did  not 
accept  any  men  who  had  even  been  strongly 
under  the  influence  of  the  ecclesiastical  doc- 
trines and  routine.  Sturdy  republicans  are  not 
bred  in  the  atmosphere  of  courts,  or  uncom- 
promising moralists  in  the  purlieus  of  temples'. 

Jesus  chose  his  disciples  not  from  Judea  but 
from  Galilee  of  the  Gentiles,  from  men  far  re- 
moved by  race  and  place  from  the  false  tradi- 
tions, the  rigid  formalism  and  the  greed  and 
corruption  he  wished  to  overthrow. 

The  Jews  considered  that  a  Jew  who  con- 
sented to  become  a  tax-gatherer  for  the 
Romans  had  denied  his  nationality  and  his 
religion.  A  publican  was  no  better  than  a 
heathen.  He  was  classed  with  the  grossest 
sinners.  Yet  Jesus  chose  "Matthew  the  pub- 
lican" as  one  of  his  twelve  apostles. 

There  was  a  class  of  fierce  patriots — zealots 
they  were  called — who  advocated  armed  resist- 


THE  CALLING  OF  THE  DISCIPLES  109 

ance  to  the  Roman  government.  They  would 
pay  no  taxes  and  were  consequently  outlaws, 
and  whenever  possible  they  emerged  from 
their  mountain  or  desert  fastnesses  and  raised 
the  standard  of  revolt.  The  power  of  Rome 
crushed  these  rebellions  with  merciless 
severity,  but  fanaticism  is  not  easily  subdued, 
and  new  leaders  soon  arose  and  gathered  new 
bands.  It  is  significant  and  interesting  that 
Jesus  was  not  repelled  by  this  type  of  mind. 
He  did  not  distrust  the  zealot  as  he  did  the 
Scribe  and  the  Pharisee.  Zeal,  however  mis- 
directed, is  a  good  quality.  Every  virtue  may 
be  grafted  upon  its  vigorous  stem,  and  so, 
though  Jesus  saw  how  impracticable  these 
zealots  were  in  their  resistance  to  Rome,  yet 
he  saw  also  their  indomitable  love  of  truth  and 
justice,  and  looked  on  them,  I  imagine,  with 
pitying  admiration. 

The  fact  that  Jesus  chose  Simon  the  Zealot 
as  one  of  the  twelve  suggests  that  he  saw  in 
him  a  spirit  very  much  like  his  own  at  a  more 
immature  period.  Jesus  was  not  only  the 
Lamb  of  God,  he  was  also  the  Lion  of  the 
tribe  of  Judah.  That  vehement  indignation 
against  all  wrong  that  led  him  to  drive  the 
hucksters  and  money-changers  out  of  the  tem- 
ple and    to  denounce  the  ruling  Scribes  and 


no      THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

Pharisees  as  hypocrites  and  vipers,  must  some- 
times have  been  stirred  against  the  political 
oppressors  of  his  country.  I  cannot  believe 
that  he  was  indifferent  to  political  liberty  or 
that  he  approved  of  the  Roman  yoke.  On  the 
contrary  he  was  a  more  ardent  patriot  even 
than  Simon  the  Zealot,  but  he  saw,  as  Simon 
did  not  see  till  taught  by  Jesus,  that  moral 
freedom  must  precede  all  genuine  political 
emancipation.  Wordsworth  and  Tennyson  in 
their  early  years  were  both,  as  is  well  known, 
in  favor  of  forcible  revolution,  and,  if  the 
inferences  drawn  from  the  choice  of  Simon  as 
a  disciple  are  correct,  Jesus  passed  through  a 
phase  of  experience  not  unlike  theirs. 

Beside  the  fishermen,  one  of  the  disciples 
was  a  tax-collector,  one  had  been  a  revolution- 
ist, and  it  is  probable  that  one  at  least  was  a 
foreigner.  Philip  is  a  Greek  name,  and  when 
on  one  occasion  some  Greeks  wished  to  see 
Jesus  they  requested  Philip,  as  a  fellow-coun- 
tryman, to  introduce  them  and  probably  to  act 
as  their  interpreter.  Jesus  was  in  all  probability 
of  purely  Jewish  descent,  except  for  the  re- 
mote mixture  of  the  Moabitish  blood  of  the 
noble  Ruth,  but  he  had  been  brought  up  in 
Galilee  of  the  Gentiles  and  accustomed  to  look 
on  men  of  different  nationalities  without  preju- 


THE  CALLING  OF  THE  DISCIPLES  m 

dice.  In  fact  in  few  things  is  the  inherent 
greatness  of  his  mind  more  apparent  than  in 
his  attitude  toward  foreigners.  He  rose  singu- 
larly above  the  prejudices  of  his  race.  He 
found  his  highest  examples  of  faith  in  a 
Roman  centurion  and  a  Phoenician  woman, 
and  his  supreme  illustration  of  brotherhood  in 
a  Samaritan,  all  of  which  is  a  distinct  anticipa- 
tion of  the  noblest  work  and  thought  of  the 
noblest  minds  of  later  times.  That  love  which 
Jesus  bore  to  man  as  man  without  regard  to 
race  or  nationality  has  ever  been  the  stimulus 
of  the  liberator  and  the  philanthropist. 

Jesus  was  one  of  the  few  Jews  who  had  taken 
to  heart  the  teaching  of  the  Book  of  Jonah, 
that  wonderful  satire  in  which  some  broad- 
minded  and  warm-hearted  man  holds  up  to 
deserved  ridicule  the  narrow  type  of  prophet 
who  did  not  want  the  Gentiles  to  be  fellow- 
heirs  with  Israel  and  who  cared  more  for  his 
own  reputation  than  for  justice  and  mercy,  and 
would  rather  see  a  city  destroyed  than  that  his 
prediction  should  be  unfulfilled. 

In  his  early  modesty  and  caution  Jesus  had 
tried  to  limit  his  work  to  Jews  only,  and  said, 
"I  am  not  sent  but  to  the  lost  sheep  of  the 
house  of  Israel,"  and  had  commanded  his  dis- 
ciples "not  to  go  into  the  way  of  the  Gentiles 


112   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

or  enter  into  any  city  of  the  Samaritans,"  but 
his  innate  generosity  and  daring  soon  widened 
his  plan  from  one  of  national  to  one  of  univer- 
sal regeneration.  His  love  was  one  that  "col- 
lective man"  could  not  fill  and  is  expressed  in 
the  belief  of  the  disciples  that  they  were  to 
"go  into  all  of  the  world  and  preach  the  gos- 
pel to  every  creature."  His  sympathies  were 
not  only  with  all  classes  but  with  all  nation- 
alities. 

The  work  of  Jesus  was  nobly  carried  on  after 
his  death  by  the  apostles  whom  he  himself 
chose,  yet  a  volunteer  who  never  saw  his  face 
in  the  flesh  "labored  more  abundantly  than 
they  all."  How  much  smaller  would  have 
been  the  influence  of  Socrates  without  the  ex- 
position of  his  doctrines  by  Plato  and  the 
anecdotes  of  Xenophon,  and  of  Jesus  if  Paul 
had  not  "filled  up  what  was  lacking"  not  only 
in  the  suffering  but  in  the  purpose  of  Jesus! 
The  world  is  infinitely  in  the  debt  of  that  fiery 
enthusiast  who  threw  away  with  noble  con- 
tempt his  birthright,  his  learning  and  his 
office,  counting  them  but  as  dung  and  as  dross, 
that  he  might  become  a  servant  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Sublime  self-abnegation!  Perfect  illustration 
of  the  truth  of  the  Master's  words,  "He  that 
loseth  his  life  for  my  sake  [i.  e.,  in  my  way] 


THE  CALLING  OF  THE  DISCIPLES  113 

shall  save  it,"  for  Paul,  giving  up  all,  has 
gained  all  and  stands  forth  forever  at  the  right 
hand  of  Jesus  as  his  immortal  associate  and 
second  self. 


CHAPTER  XII 

Christ's  attitude  toward  women  and 
children 

Jesus  loved  children  with  a  peculiar  affection, 
and  looked  upon  them  with  wonder  and  rever- 
ence. When  some  of  his  disciples  showed  a 
selfish,  ambitious  and  quarrelsome  spirit,  and, 
bringing  their  differences  to  Jesus,  asked  him, 
Who  is  the  greatest  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven? 
Jesus  called  a  child  to  him  and  said,  "Verily  I 
say  unto  you,  except  ye  be  converted  (i.  e., 
changed  altogether  in  spirit  and  purpose)  and 
become  as  little  children,  ye  shall  not  enter 
into  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  The  disciples 
did  not  readily  apprehend  the  lesson,  and, 
though  Jesus  was  in  general  patient  with 
their  dulness  and  mistakes,  their  conduct  on 
another  occasion  greatly  offended  him.  Some 
fathers  and  mothers  had  brought  young  chil- 
dren that  he  should  touch  them,  but  the  dis- 
ciples apparently  thought  other  claims  upon 
the  Master's  attention  more  important  and 
"rebuked  them."  But  when  Jesus  saw  it,  he 
was   much    displeased   and    said   unto    them, 

114 


ATTITUDE  TOWARD  WOMEN      115 

"Suffer  little  children  to  come  unto  me  and 
forbid  them  not:  for  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of 
God.  .  .  .  And  he  took  them  up  in  his  arms, 
put  his  hands  upon  them  and  blessed  them." 

Sensitiveness  of  temper  and  love  of  beauty 
are  characteristics  of  women  and  of  poets. 
Jesus  understood  and  loved  women,  and  women 
understood  and  loved  him  in  return.  He  had 
none  of  the  masculine  disdain  for  the  intellect 
of  woman  that  was  and  is  common  in  Oriental 
lands  and  not  unknown  in  western  ones. 

The  gospels  contain  many  incidents  that 
show  the  marvelous  delicacy,  sympathy  and 
tact  of  Jesus  in  his  association  with  women. 
Jesus  had  his  inner  circle  of  friends,  Peter, 
James  and  John  among  men,  but  it  is  said  also 
that  he  loved  Mary  and  Martha,  and  of  these 
he  preferred  Mary,  who  refreshed  his  spirit  by 
sympathy,  to  Martha,  who  cared  more  for  his 
bodily  comfort  and  less  for  his  spiritual  ideals. 

Nothing  places  the  general  attitude  of  Jesus 
toward  women  in  a  stronger  light  than  the 
contrast  between  him  and  his  greatest  apos- 
tle. Paul  was  a  self-sacrificing  and  heroic 
man,  full  of  fire,  eloquence  and  devotion,  but 
as  compared  with  Jesus  his  nature  was  narrow 
and  one-sided,  and  his  theology  was  warped 
and    dwarfed     accordingly.      Look    at    these 


n6      THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

words  of  Paul:  "A  man  ought  not  to  have  his 
head  veiled,  forasmuch  as  he  is  the  image  and 
glory  of  God:  but  the  woman  is  the  glory  of 
the  man.  For  the  man  is  not  of  the  woman; 
but  the  woman  of  the  man:  for  neither  was  the 
man  created  for  the  woman;  but  the  woman  for 
the  man"  (i  Cor.  11:7-9,  Revised  Version). 
Contrast  this  legend  of  the  creation  of  woman 
after  and  for  man  and  its  legitimate  inference 
of  woman's  essential  inferiority  with  the  words 
of  Jesus:  "From  the  beginning  of  the  creation 
God  made  them  male  and  female.  For  this 
cause  shall  a  man  leave  his  father  and  mother, 
and  cleave  to  his  wife;  and  they  twain  shall 
be  one  flesh."  Here  the  legend  of  Eve's  later 
creation  is  quietly  thrust  aside  and  instead  of 
man's  headship  Jesus  teaches  man  and  wife  the 
duty  of  mutual  dependence,  equality  and  love, 
such  as  he  remembered  in  the  home  at  Naz- 
areth, 

The  quick  sympathies  of  Jesus  went  out 
to  the  individual  soul.  What  wonderful 
accounts  the  gospels  give  of  his  power  to 
restore  self-respect  and  revive  hope  in  women 
out  of  whom  he  had  "cast  seven  devils." 
One  of  the  most  interesting  of  these  is 
his  conversation  with  the  woman  of  Sa- 
maria.     Jesus   was    weary    with    his   journey. 


ATTITUDE  TOWARD  WOMEN      117 

and  during  the  noon-day  heat  was  resting  him- 
self by  Jacob's  well.  A  woman  came  to  draw 
water,  and  Jesus  asked  her  for  a  drink.  She 
was  surprised  that  a  Jewish  rabbi  should  con- 
descend to  speak  to  a  Samaritan  woman,  and 
her  answer  showed  both  gratification  and  curi- 
osity. Her  eagerness  and  kindness  were  very 
refreshing  to  the  tired  prophet.  She  asked 
questions;  and  every  true  teacher  longs  for 
intelligent  and  sympathetic  listeners.  Jesus 
would  not  so  often  have  repeated  the  exhorta- 
tion, "He  that  hath  ears  to  hear  let  him  hear," 
if  he  had  not  often  been  grieved  and  dis- 
couraged by  seeing  that  many  of  his  hearers 
were  inattentive  and  indifferent.  Every  true 
teacher  welcomes  small  opportunities  and 
single  auditors.  Jesus  did  not  reserve  his 
efforts  for  great  multitudes  or  the  select  com- 
pany of  his  disciples,  but  wherever  there  was  a 
needy  and  receptive  soul,  no  matter  how  ex- 
hausted the  Great  Teacher  might  be,  he  exerted 
himself  to  enlighten  and  to  help.  Such  a 
listener  and  such  an  opportunity  he  found 
here.  He  had  often  been  irritated  by  opposi- 
tion, wearied  by  dulness  and  pained  by  in- 
credulity, and  the  quick  sympathy,  the 
intuitive  apprehension  and  the  tactful  and 
deferential  questionings  of  this  warm-hearted 


n8      THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

woman  drew  from  him  an  explicit  assertion 
that  he  was  the  Messiah.  Who  does  not  know 
this  fascinating  and  sympathetic  type  of 
woman  to  whom  men  reveal  those  daring  plans 
and  visions  that  they  hide  from  the  smaller 
faith  and  blunter  frankness  of  their  own  sex? 

The  conversation  is  given  in  outline  only, 
but  enough  is  said  to  enable  us  to  understand 
how  such  a  woman,  quick  of  apprehension, 
warm-hearted,  impulsive,  prompt  and  ener- 
getic in  action,  as  capable  of  enthusiasm  in 
virtue  as  in  wickedness,  should  at  once  become 
not  merely  a  believer  and  disciple,  but  a 
busy  and  zealous  missionary. 

Still  more  wonderful  is  the  story  of  the 
woman  taken  in  adultery.  How  many  persons 
there  are  who  will  privately  show  a  sympathy 
with  the  erring  which  they  are  ashamed  of  in 
the  presence  of  a  hostile  public  opinion!  It 
is  indeed  no  easy  thing  to  brave  the  frown  and 
the  reproach  of  the  leaders  of  the  church  and 
of  society,  but  Jesus  met  this  as  he  met  the 
other  tests  of  a  reformer,  with  tact  and  courage. 
The  Scribes  and  Pharisees  declared  that  the 
woman's  guilt  was  undeniable,  and,  as  Shylock 
appealed  for  his  pound  of  flesh  by  the  danger 
that  would  fall  upon  the  charter  of  Venice  if  it 
were  refused,  so  these  prototypes  of  Shylock 


ATTITUDE  TOWARD  WOMEN      119 

dared  Jesus  to  break  the  cruel  Jewish  law  as 
they  hissed  through  their  teeth,  "Moses  com- 
manded that  such  should  be  stoned;  but  what 
sayest  thou?"  He  said  nothing,  but  wrote 
upon  the  ground.  They  continued  asking 
him,  and  at  last  they  got  their  answer:  "He 
that  is  without  sin  among  you,  let  him  first  cast 
a  stone."  The  accusers  were  convicted  by 
conscience  and  slipped  away  in  shame  one  by 
one  till  Jesus  was  left  alone  with  the  woman. 
Then  came  the  peace-restoring,  hope-reviving 
words,  "Neither  do  I  condemn  thee:  go  and 
sin  no  more."  I  should  like  to  know  that 
woman's  subsequent  history.  One  thing  I  feel 
assured  of,  she  never  forgot  the  command  of 
Jesus  or  betrayed  the  confidence  he  had  placed 
in  her. 

Then,  as  now,  the  Master's  faith  and  courage 
were  greater  than  those  of  his  disciples,  and, 
as  Farrar's  Life  of  Christ  explains  in  detail,  it 
was  long  before  the  story  received  official  and 
popular  sanction  and  was  inserted  in  all  copies 
of  John's  gospel. 

The  family  is  the  corner  stone  of  all  virtue 
and  progress,  Greek  civilization  fell  because 
it  did  not  place  woman  on  an  equality  with 
man.  Mohammedanism  has  the  same  funda- 
mental   and  fatal   weakness,   has   reached    its 


lao  THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

limit  of  growth,  and  is  slowly  sinking  into 
decay.  It  cannot  elevate  men  because  it  de- 
grades women,  and  by  God's  law  in  nature, 
husband  and  wife,  mother  and  child,  cling 
together  for  good  or  for  evil. 

It  is  the  glory  of  Jesus  that  he  built  his  reli- 
gion upon  the  home  as  truly  as  upon  the  indi- 
vidual conscience  and  upon  the  church.  He 
loved  and  honored  man,  and  he  loved  and 
honored  woman,  and  men  and  women  have 
vied  with  each  other  in  returning  him  love  and 
honor,  and  not  seldom  in  this  loving  emulation, 
woman's  intuitive  and  impassioned  loyalty  has 
outdone,  outdared  and  outsuffered  man's 
colder  and  more  calculating  devotion. 

The  gospels  are  the  most  condensed  of  all 
records,  and  their  meaning  must  be  brought  out 
by  meditation.  But  the  full  force  of  some 
passages  only  women  can  understand.  No 
man  can  know  all  that  lies  hidden  in  the  few 
references  to  Mary  Magdalen  and  Joanna  and 
Susanna,  and  the  many  other  women  who 
ministered  unto  him  by  their  substance  and  by 
their  service.  The  Master  and  his  apostles  were 
fed,  his  seamless  robe  was  woven  and  lovingly 
embroidered  by  woman's  hands,  his  feet  were 
washed,  his  head  was  anointed  by  woman. 
Women  wept  as  he  was  led  to  crucifixion,  they 


ATTITUDE  TOWARD  WOMEN      121 

stood  beside  his  cross,  they  tenderly  prepared 
his  bruised  body  for  burial,  they  watched 
beside  his  tomb,  they  first  proclaimed  his 
resurrection.  Men  forsook,  denied  and  be- 
trayed him,  but  no  woman  ever  faltered  in  her 
love  and  loyalty. 


CHAPTER    XIII 

PETER  DECLARES  JESUS  TO  BE  THE  SON  OF  GOD 

In  gathering  disciples  about  him  in  order  to 
spread  and  perpetuate  his  doctrines,  Jesus  was 
only  following  the  common  precedent  of  the 
times.  Every  rabbi  of  note  had  his  body  of 
disciples,  some  companies  like  those  of  Rabbi 
Shammai  and  Rabbi  Hillel  being  very  numer- 
ous. His  manner  of  teaching,  however,  was 
far  bolder,  more  authoritative,  and  attractive 
than  theirs,  and  his  success  with  the  common 
people  much  greater.  The  multitudes  who 
followed  Jesus  must  in  most  cases  have  left 
some  other  teacher  in  order  to  do  so,  and  men, 
even  good  men,  do  not  usually  see  their  influ- 
ence lessened  and  their  sources  of  income 
diminished  without  jealousy  and  exasperation. 
As  a  result  of  these  feelings,  these  rabbis  fre- 
quently attempted  to  check  the  work  of  Jesus. 
They  acted  in  fact  very  much  as  the  clergy  of 
the  established  Church  in  England  acted 
toward  *the  early  Methodist  preachers.  They 
were  jealous  of  him.  They  were  doubtless 
largely  sincere   in  their  opposition.      We  all 


PETER'S  DECLARATION  123 

too  easily  believe  ill  of  those  who  are  working 
us  manifest  and  great  injury,  and  it  is  not  at  all 
surprising  that  as  soon  as  the  fame  of  Jesus^ 
spread  abroad  and  multitudes  flocked  from  all 
parts  to  hear  him  that  the  regular  clergy 
promptly  began  a  vigorous  opposition.  And 
to  jealousy  was  soon  added  a  dread  of  his 
power  which  deterred  those  who  might  other- 
wise have  been  well-disposed  from  any  attempt 
at  patronage.  If  there  was  any  such  attempt 
it  was  too  insignificant  for  notice.  The  gospels 
tell  us  only  of  opposition.  They  say  that 
priests  demanded  of  Jesus  by  what  authority 
he  taught,  that  they  challenged  the  truth  of  his 
doctrines,  denounced  him  as  a  Sabbath- 
breaker,  a  blasphemer,  a  wine-bibber,  an  im- 
postor and  son  of  Belial. 

Jesus  had  many  an  encounter  with  the 
various  types  of  inquisitors,  from  the  dullest 
and  most  obstinate  formalist  to  the  keenest  and 
most  unscrupulous  lawyer,  but,  like  Lincoln, 
he  was  never  worsted  in  debate.  Yet  contro- 
versy, however  successful,  always  chafes  the 
mind  and  exhausts  the  energies,  and  Jesus  had 
many  an  hour  of  weariness  and  dejection,  as 
opposition  revealed  to  him  the  stupidity  and 
perverseness  of  the  ruling  classes. 

Success  brought  another  trial  perhaps  hardly 


124   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

easier  to  bear.  All  sorts  of  ignorant  and  worth- 
less quacks  clumsily  imitated  his  methods  and 
brought  discredit  upon  them.  The  impatient 
disciples  forbade  them,  but  Jesus,  though  he 
doubtless  sighed  inwardly  as  he  thought  how 
these  people  were  distorting  and  caricaturing 
his  words  and  his  acts,  knew  that  these 
grotesque  shadows  must  precede  the  dawn,  and 
told  his  followers  to  cease  from  a  useless  oppo- 
sition. "He  that  is  not  against  me  is  for  me." 
A  yet  harder  trial  was  the  opposition  of  his 
own  family.  His  mother  and  his  brothers 
attempted  to  lay  hold  of  him  and  put  an  end 
to  his  career.  The  reports  brought  to  them 
that  he  had  set  up  as  a  .eacher  and  healer,  was 
constantly  followed  by  an  infatuated  rabble, 
and  was  everywhere  denounced  by  the  priests 
and  rulers  as  a  false  prophet  and  "son  of 
Belial,"  must  have  been  very  painful  indeed  to 
that  simple-minded,  God-fearing  household. 
Loving  and  self-sacrificing  as  a  mother  is,  it  is 
very  hard  for  her  to  think  of  her  son,  whom 
she  remembers  as  a  helpless  baby  and  whom 
she  taught  to  lisp  his  first  words,  as  a  great  and 
wise  man.  If  a  nation  proclaims  him  great 
and  does  him  honor,  his  mother  acquiesces  with 
joyful  humility  in  the  popular  verdict.  And 
the    popular    verdict,    if    adverse,    is    equally 


PETER'S  DECLARATION  125 

potent.  When  the  rulers  and  the  multitude 
join  in  condemning  a  man  as  a  crazy  enthusi- 
ast, how  shall  the  mother  of  an  imaginative 
child  who  remembers  all  his  wild  dreams,  all 
his  absurd  fancies,  all  his  foolish  boastings, 
free  herself  from  the  fear  that  he  is  still  only- 
dreaming  and  boasting  as  he  used  to  do  before 
the  little  curly  head  sank  into  the  soft  slumber 
of  childhood?  The  very  depth  of  her  affection 
increases  her  solicitude.  It  must  have  been  a 
sad  journey  when  Mary  set  out  with  her  other 
sons  to  lay  hold  on  Jesus  because  he  was 
"beside  himself."  Better,  far  better,  honor- 
able death  than  shame  or  insanity.  Perhaps 
the  sword  that  passed  through  Mary's  heart  at 
the  tidings  that  led  her  to  leave  Nazareth  in 
search  of  the  son  who  was  reported  mad  was 
the  sharpest  that  ever  pierced  that  patient  and 
loving  heart.  But  the  church  for  obvious 
reasons  has  not  made  it  the  crown  of  her  sor- 
rows. It  has  been  passed  over  in  the  enumera- 
tion of  her  distresses  because  it  is  quite 
inconsistent  with  the  legendary  account  of  the 
miraculous  birth  of  Jesus.  If  Mary  knew  that 
an  angel  had  announced  the  birth  of  her  son 
and  that  he  had  had  no  human  father,  she  would 
have  hailed  with  joy  his  entrance  upon  his 
mission  and  no  opposition  of  priests  or  people 


126   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

would  have  troubled  her  in  the  least,  for 
women  are  sure  and  steady  in  their  intuitions 
and  affections. 

The  soul  of  Jesus  was  troubled.  As  in  the 
case  of  Paul,  "without  were  fightings,  within 
were  fears."  Every  sane  man  sometimes 
doubts  the  correctness  of  his  own  opinions  and 
methods,  if  they  are  rejected  by  the  majority 
of  men,  and  especially  if  they  are  opposed  by 
the  recognized  leaders  and  teachers  of  the  time 
and  by  those  whom  he  loves  and  who  love  him. 

Jesus  was  often  tempted  to  stop,  to  distrust 
his  own  opinions  and  to  yield  to  the  authority 
of  the  learned  and  the  voice  of  numbers.  He 
had  long  believed  that  he  had  a  mission,  and 
at  times  his  belief  as  to  his  duty  seemed  clear 
beyond  the  slightest  peradventure.  Then 
again  the  opposing  opinion  of  others  and  fears 
and  discouragements  growing  out  of  weariness 
and  disappointment  had  obscured  his  faith  and 
driven  him  in  trouble  of  soul  to  solitude  and 
prayer.  It  is  significantly  recorded  that  after 
the  great  temptation  following  his  baptism 
"the  devil  departed  from  him  for  a  season," 
but  as  the  ocean  labors  long  after  a  storm  and 
as  storm  succeeds  storm  upon  it,  so  the  agita- 
tions of  the  human  heart  subside  slowly,  and 
the  wild  currents  of  thought  may  at  any  time 


PETER'S  DECLARATION  127 

again  lash  the  emotions  into  new  tumult. 
These  repeated  agonies  of  doubt,  the  common 
experience  of  all  real  martyrs,  were  a  large 
element  in  the  suffering  of  the  "Man  of  Sor- 
rows." 

His  sanity  had  been  questioned,  his  brothers 
and  his  mother  had  attempted  to  restrain  him, 
the  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  the  leaders  of  the 
church,  had  denounced  him,  he  was  looked 
upon  as  a  dangerous  agitator,  a  man  who 
"had  a  devil,"  by  the  respectable  elements 
of  society;  he  was  followed  by  crowds  who 
wanted  to  be  fed  or  healed  or  to  see  him  work 
miracles,  and  who  were  disappointed  because 
he  did  not  satisfy  their  love  of  the  marvelous 
or  cater  to  their  vulgar  greed  and  ambition. 

He  said,  "A  wicked  and  adulterous  genera- 
tion seeketh  after  a  sign;  and  there  shall  no 
sign  be  given  it,  but  the  sign  of  the  prophet 
Jonah."  He  grew  heart-sick  and  wondered 
whether  he  had  not  been  deluded  by  the  voices 
and  whether  the  task  he  had  undertaken  was 
not  too  great  for  him,  whether  his  supposed 
Messiahship  was  not  a  failure  and  a  dream. 

It  was  in  an  hour  of  deep  despondency  that 
he  asked  his  disciples  what  people  were  say- 
ing about  him  and  who  the  multitude  thought 
he  was.     The  answer  was,  "Some  say  that  thou 


128   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

art  John  the  Baptist;  some  Elijah;  and  others 
Jeremiah,  or  one  of  the  prophets."  These 
answers  all  mean  that  the  multitude  had  no 
faith  in  his  Messiahship.  In  the  opinion  of 
all  he  was  but  a  forerunner,  and  the  heart  of 
Jesus  sank  still  more.  Scarcely  daring  to  ask 
the  question  for  fear  that  an  adverse  answer 
might  be  another  and  almost  intolerable  dis- 
couragement, he  yet  pushed  his  inquiry  further 
and  said,  "But  who  say  ye  that  I  am?"  And 
Peter,  divining  in  some  way  the  doubt  and  fear 
that  troubled  his  Master's  heart,  replied  impet- 
uously, "Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the 
living  God."  The  word  of  encouragement  was 
sorely  needed  and  gratefully  received.  It 
soothed  and  refreshed  the  chafed  and  weary 
spirit  of  Jesus.  To  be  believed  in  even  by  this 
little  band  was  enough.  The  good  seed  had 
taken  root,  and  would  multiply.  His  work 
would  be  continued  after  his  death,  which 
from  the  power  and  exasperation  of  his  ene- 
mies and  from  the  fate  of  previous  prophets  he 
saw  could  not  be  far  off.  He  was  conscious 
that  he  was  a  king  of  men,  and  he  saw  but  one 
vacant  throne.  He  obeyed  the  outward  guid- 
ance of  events  and  the  voice  of  God  in  his 
soul,  and,  with  sublime  faith  and  dim  yet 
glorious   prevision   of   the   world-wide   extent 


PETER'S  DECLARATION  129 

and  age-long  duration  of  his  spiritual  kingdom, 
he  accepted  the  heaviest  burden  of  responsi- 
bility, the  lowest  deeps  of  shame  and  suffering 
and  the  highest  exaltation  of  glory  known 
among  men — he  was  obedient  to  his  heavenly 
vision,  he  accepted  the  appointment  of  Son  of 
God  and  Son  of  Man. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE  TRANSFIGURATION  AND  SECOND  COMING 

The  declaration  of  Peter  marks  an  important 
stage  in  the  life  of  Jesus.  It  filled  him  with 
new  life  and  joy.  As  Columbus  and  Balboa 
were  thrilled  with  delight  at  their  great  dis- 
coveries, so  Jesus,  now  that  the  foundations  of 
his  church  were  laid,  saw  in  vision  the  great 
and  enduring  edifice  that  was  to  be,  and  he 
rejoiced.  The  joy  of  his  soul  changed  even 
the  appearance  of  his  body.  His  face  was 
illuminated  and  radiant.  At  least  this  is  what 
I  take  to  be  the  simple  fact  upon  which  the 
story  of  the  transfiguration  which  immediately 
follows  is  based.  It  does  not  explain  the 
story  of  the  transfiguration  to  say  with  Strauss 
that  as  it  is  reported  that  the  face  of  Moses 
shone  after  he  had  spoken  with  God,  so  the 
disciples  of  Jesus  would  naturally  invent  a 
similar  story  about  him  in  order  to  make  him 
as  great  as  his  predecessor.  Biographical 
frenzy  and  poetic  imagination  account  for  infi- 
nite embellishment  and  exaggeration,  but  they 
130 


THE  TRANSFIGURATION         131 

need  some  material  upon  which  to  work.  The 
mighty  wings  of  the  imagination  must  always 
have  some  medium  in  which  to  exert  them- 
selves, some  hints  and  analogies  from  actual 
life.  Pure  fiction  is  very  rare  and  very  insipid. 
As  Dante's  visions  of  hell  darkened  his  face  as 
with  the  smoke  of  the  pit,  and  lurid  fires 
seemed  to  smoulder  in  the  depths  of  his 
troubled  eyes,  so  the  glories  of  a  redeemed 
humanity,  of  a  happy  earth  the  inhabitants  of 
which  should  never  say,  I  am  sick;  of  a  world 
free  from  weariness  and  pain  and  sorrow  and 
sighing,  the  vision  of  the  kingdom  of  God 
upon  earth,  the  vision  of  celestial  glory, 
lighted  up  the  face  of  Jesus  and  made  it  beam 
as  the  face  of  no  other  ever  shone. 

Whatever  may  be  the  exaggerations  of  fancy 
the  old  painters  would  not  have  put  a  halo 
around  the  head  of  every  saint,  if  there  were 
no  fact  at  all  to  be  expressed  by  the  symbol. 
What  is  the  veil  of  flesh  that  it  should  obstruct 
the  light  of  the  soul? 

Like  circumstances  produce  like  effects, 
and  there  was  a  transfiguration  of  Jesus  as 
there  was  one  of  Moses  caused  by  "the  abund- 
ance of  revelation  given  unto  him," 

What  might  have  been  expected  occurred. 
Jesus  enlarged  his  work.     In  addition  to  his 


132   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

twelve  apostles  he  appointed  seventy  other 
persons  and  sent  them  out  two  by  two  to  preach 
and  heal.  As  his  own  mind  became  more 
clear  his  preaching  became  more  urgent  and 
impressive.  He  warned  men  that  the  day  of 
grace  would  not  last  forever,  but  that  a  day  of 
judgment  would  surely  come  and  might  over- 
take them  at  any  time.  Especially  he  mourned 
over  the  cities  of  Chorazin  and  Bethsaida,  in 
which  he  had  preached  longest  and  where  most 
of  his  great  works  had  been  performed.  He 
went  again  through  the  cities  and  villages 
teaching.  As  Paul  afterward  warned  every 
one  "night  and  day  with  tears,"  so  Jesus,  in 
parable  after  parable  and  exhortation  after 
exhortation,  sought  to  bring  men  into  the 
kingdom  of  God  before  it  should  be  too  late. 
"Take  no  thought  for  your  life,  what  ye  shall 
eat;  neither  for  your  body,  what  ye  shall  put 
on.  .  .  .  Seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God;  and 
all  these  things  shall  be  added  unto  you." 
Regard  not  the  opposition  of  friends  or  kin- 
dred. "He  that  loveth  father  or  mother  or 
wife  or  child  more  than  me  is  not  worthy  of 
me.  .  .  .  He  that  taketh  not  up  his  cross  and 
followeth  after  me  cannot  be  my  disciple." 
He  was  pressed  in  his  own  spirit,  and  said  to 
his    disciples,    "I    came   to   send   fire   on   the 


THE  TRANSFIGURATION         133 

earth  and  it  is  already  kindled."  "I  have  a 
baptism  to  be  baptized  with;  and  how  am  I 
straitened  till  it  be  accomplished!"  "Whoso- 
ever denies  me  now  before  men,  him  will  I 
also  deny  before  my  Father  in  Heaven."  He 
declared  that  he  would  come  again  in  glory  to 
judge  the  world  and  that  all  nations  should  be 
gathered  before  him,  and  that  he  would  sep- 
arate the  righteous  from  the  wicked  as  a  shep- 
herd "divideth  his  sheep  from  the  goats," 
caring  nothing  for  their  professions,  but  re- 
garding or  punishing  them  according  to  their 
deeds.  Those  who  had  fed  the  hungry, 
clothed  the  naked  and  visited  the  sick  and  the 
prisoners  should  be  recognized  as  his  disciples 
and  should  enter  with  him  into  his  glory. 
Others,  no  matter  how  wonderful  their  works, 
how  loud  their  professions,  or  what  their  re- 
spectability and  standing,  were  not  his  and 
would  have  no  share  in  his  triumph. 

Here  Christ  assumes  his  kingship  over  men. 
Here  is  his  supreme  statement  of  his  authority, 
but  how  significant  are  its  limitations!  When 
he  was  asked  by  his  disciples,  "When  shall 
these  things  be  and  what  shall  be  the  sign  of 
thy  coming  and  of  the  end  of  the  world?"  his 
answer  was,  "Of  that  day  and  hour  knoweth 
no    man,    no,    not    the    angels   which    are   in 


134   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

heaven,  neither  the  son,  but  the  Father  only." 
(Matthew  24:  36  and  Mark  13:  32,)  And  of  the 
limitations  of  his  knowledge  and  his  liability 
to  error  the  context  furnishes  us  a  marked 
example,  for  Jesus  repeatedly  declared, 
"Verily  I  say  unto  you,  that  this  generation 
shall  not  pass,  till  all  these  things  be  done." 
The  phraseology  reported  by  Luke  is  even 
more  definite  and  emphatic  and  runs  thus: 
"Whosoever  shall  be  ashamed  of  me  and  of 
my  words,  of  him  shall  the  Son  of  Man  be 
ashamed,  when  he  shall  come  in  his  own  glory, 
and  in  his  Father's,  and  of  the  holy  angels. 
But  I  tell  you  of  a  truth,  there  be  some  stand- 
ing here  which  shall  not  taste  of  death,  till 
they  see  the  kingdom  of  God."  In  accordance 
with  these  declarations  Paul  wrote  to  the 
Thessalonians,  "We  say  unto  you  by  the  word 
of  the  Lord  that  we  which  are  alive  and  remain 
unto  the  coming  of  the  Lord  shall  not  precede 
them  that  have  fallen  asleep.  For  the  Lord 
himself  shall  descend  from  heaven  with  a 
shout,  with  the  voice  of  the  archangel  and  with 
the  trump  of  God."  Almost  every  epistle  in 
the  New  Testament  bears  similar  testimony  to 
the  belief  of  the  primitive  church  that  Jesus 
would  return  attended  by  angels  to  gather  his 
elect  before  all  of  the  first  generation  of  his 


THE  TRANSFIGURATION  135 

disciples  had  passed  from  earth.  Alas!  is  not 
this  the  constant  error  of  the  finite  mind  that 
it  measures  everything  by  its  own  little  scale, 
forgetting  the  sweep  and  the  grandeur  of  the 
designs  of  the  omniscient  and  omnipotent  God 
to  whom  "one  day  is  as  a  thousand  years  and  a 
thousand  years  are  as  one  day?"  Ought  not 
the  divine  Workman  to  take  infinite  time  and 
infinite  labor,  if  need  be,  to  make  his  work 
perfect,  rather  than  by  some  short  and  easy 
process  reach  a  less  satisfying  consummation? 
Do  we  not  require  even  a  human  artist,  one 
who  paints  a  picture  or  carves  a  statue,  to  take 
all  the  time  needed  to  do  his  best,  and  shall 
not  the  same  rule,  apply  to  the  almighty  Fash- 
ioner of  the  souls  of  men?  But  every  human 
reformer,  with  pathetic  weakness  and  impa- 
tience, wishes  for  a  quicker  movement  of  events 
and  a  clearer  vision  of  their  results  than  it 
seems  best  to  the  infinite  Wisdom  and  Good- 
ness to  afford. 

Another  declaration  made  at  this  time  is  also 
important  as  throwing  light  on  the  conscious- 
ness of  Jesus.  A  certain  ruler,  alarmed,  it  may 
well  be,  by  the  sermons  on  the  coming  judg- 
ment and  attracted  by  the  bright  visions  of  the 
coming  glory  of  Christ's  kingdom,  asked  him, 
"Good    Master,    what    shall    I    do   10    inherit 


136   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

eternal  life?"  As  Jesus  had  before  disclaimed 
perfect  knowledge,  he  now  disclaimed  perfect 
goodness.  "Why,"  he  said,  "callest  thou  me 
good?  none  is  good  save  one,  that  is  God." 
Account  for  it  as  we  may,  the  holiest  minds 
are  ever  the  most  abased  at  the  sense  of  their 
own  unworthiness.  When  Paul  was  a  proud, 
persecuting  Pharisee  breathing  out  fire  and 
slaughter  and  making  havoc  of  the  church  he 
"verily  thought  he  was  doing  God  service." 
Later  he  boasted  of  his  apostleship.  "Are 
they  ministers  of  Christ?  1  am  more;  in 
labors  more  abundant,  in  stripes  above  meas- 
ure, in  prisons  more  frequent,  in  deaths  oft. 
Of  the  Jews  five  times  received  I  forty  stripes 
save  one.  Thrice  was  I  beaten  with  rods,  once 
was  I  stoned,  thrice  I  suffered  shipwreck,  a 
night  and  a  day  I  have  been  in  the  deep.  In 
journeys  often,  in  perils  of  robbers,  in  perils  in 
the  city,  in  perils  in  the  wilderness,  in  perils  in 
the  sea;  in  weariness  and  painfulness,  in 
hunger  and  thirst,  in  cold  and  nakedness." 
Yes,  here  was  heroism,  and  Paul's  boast,  "I 
was  not  a  whit  behind  the  very  chiefest  apos- 
tles," is  just.  Yet,  though  stung  sometimes 
by  detraction  and  opposition  into  thus  assert- 
ing his  claims,  Paul's  mood  whenever  he  turns 
from  human  to  divine  standards  is  more  hum- 


THE  TRANSFIGURATION         137 

ble,  and  he  declares,  "I  am  the  least  of  the 
apostles,  and  am  not  meet  to  be  called  an 
apostle  because  I  persecuted  the  church  of 
God."  As  the  ordinary  flame  of  a  lamp  or 
candle  when  placed  in  front  of  a  calcium  light 
appears  like  a  black  spot,  so  the  holiest  men 
have  always  felt  most  painfully  the  contrast 
between  their  actual  thoughts  and  feelings  and 
the  standard  of  purity  and  virtue  of  which 
they  conceive  and  for  which  they  long. 

I  think  we  find  the  climax  of  Paul's  religious 
experience  in  the  words  to  Timothy  written 
when  he  was  Paul  the  aged,  when  his  good 
fight  was  almost  fought  out  and  his  strenuous 
race  almost  run.  Then  there  was  no  self-satis- 
faction, no  boasting  of  manifold  labors  and 
sufferings,  no  claim  of  apostleship,  nothing 
but  a  vision  of  God's  wonderful  and  unmerited 
grace  through  Christ  to  sinners,  "of  whom," 
said  he,  "I  am  chief."  I  think  that  this  was 
the  mood  of  the  Master  also  when  he  said, 
"Why  callest  thou  me  good?  none  is  good  save 
one,  that  is  God," 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE  FINAL  PREPARATION  OF  THE  APOSTLES 

When  the  nervous  forces  are  exhausted  by 
labor  and  conflict  or  by  too  much  introspec- 
tion, God's  sovereign  remedies  are  the  sea,  the 
field,  the  forest  and  the  mountain.  In  the 
presence  of  God's  grandeur  things  are  seen  in 
their  true  proportion,  a  disturbed  and  jaded 
mind  recovers  its  tone,  and  the  strongest  and 
noblest  minds  are  lifted  above  themselves. 

Such  solitary  retirements  to  the  desert  or  the 
mountain  for  communion  with  God  were  fre- 
quent with  Jesus,  but  just  before  his  last 
journey  to  Jerusalem  he  withdrew  from  the 
world  rather  for  the  sake  of  his  apostles  than 
for  his  own  necessity  or  enjoyment. 

If  the  order  of  events  in  the  gospel  of  John 
may  be  relied  upon,  even  after  Jesus  had  uttered 
his  last  discourses  in  Galilee  and  manifested 
his  power  to  the  utmost,  his  own  kinsmen  still 
remained  incredulous.  They  said  to  him 
tauntingly,  "Depart  hence  and  go  into  Judea 
.  .  .  for  no  man  doeth  anything  in  secret,  and 
himself  seeketh  to  be  known  openly,"  for,  as 
138 


PREPARATION  OF  THE  APOSTLES  139 

John  adds,  "Neither  did  his  brethren  believe 
in  him."  It  was  from  his  own  painful  expe- 
rience that  Jesus  learned  the  truth  that  he  so 
often  and  variously  declared  that  in  spiritual, 
as  in  other  things  "a  man's  foes"  are  some- 
times "they  of  his  own  household."  If  there 
was  such  distrust  in  his  natural  family,  could 
he  be  sure  that  the  faith  of  his  spiritual  family 
was  fixed  and  would  remain  unshaken  in  the 
hour  of  supreme  trial?  So,  knowing  the 
human  mind  and  its  vacillations,  and  remem- 
bering how  long  and  severe  had  been  his  own 
temptations  before  his  course  became  clear  to 
him,  Jesus  prudently  determined  before  declar- 
ing himself  the  Messiah  in  the  capital,  and  as 
he  foresaw  suffering  the  prophet's  martyrdom, 
to  retire  once  more  to  some  secret  place  with 
his  disciples  and  teach  and  encourage  them 
alone  as  he  could  not  when  thronged  by  the 
multitude.  The  disciples  were  doubtless  much 
agitated  by  what  they  had  heard.  They  also 
had  had  their  share  in  the  work  of  preaching 
and  healing,  and  were  worn  and  jaded  by  the 
long  journeys  and  constant  labors  of  the  pre- 
ceding weeks.  Accordingly  Jesus  again,  as  so 
often  before,  said  to  them  in  loving  words, 
"Come  ye  yourselves  apart  and  rest  awhile." 
Jesus   is  not  a  jealous  and   inexorable  tyrant 


140   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

wringing  the  uttermost  penny  of  tribute,  the 
most  intense  exertion  of  every  power  at  every 
moment  in  his  service,  but,  like  the  Almighty 
Father,  he  pitieth  them  that  fear  him,  and  his 
"yoke  is  easy  and  his  burden  light."  "Come 
ye  yourselves  apart  and  rest  awhile,"  he  said, 
and  the  weary  disciples  gladly  responded. 
Doubtless  Jesus  himself  yearned  also  for  sym- 
pathy and  companionship,  for  the  kind  looks, 
the  loving  words,  and  the  affectionate  caresses 
of  his  familiar  friends  to  whom  he  could  un- 
bosom himself  as  he  could  not  to  "the  world." 
In  this  retirement  before  the  last  stern  trial 
there  was  a  divine  wisdom  and  prudence. 

Prudence  is  a  very  ambiguous  word.  Some- 
times it  means  a  cold,  calculating  selfishness 
that  saps  the  strength  of  generous  resolve  and 
heroic  action.  Of  this  sort  of  prudence  Jesus 
had  none.  "He  that  saveth  his  life  shall  lose 
it,"  was  the  way  in  which  he  expressed  his 
deep  conviction  on  a  question  he  had  doubt- 
less often  considered  from  every  point  of  view. 
But  prudence  is  sometimes  not  cowardice  but 
foresight.  It  then  has  a  place  among  the 
intellectual  and  even  among  the  moral  virtues. 
In  this  sense  Jesus  was  prudent,  and  to  the 
taunts  of  his  incredulous  kinsmen  he  gave  only 
the  significant  answer,  "Mine  hour  is   not  yet 


PREPARATION  OF  THE  APOSTLES  141 

come."  Like  a  wise  captain  he  drilled  his 
soldiers  before  he  brought  them  under  a  sharp 
fire.  In  these  quiet  days  he  doubtless  gave 
them  much  instruction,  for  his  mind  was  full 
and  at  last  he  had  left  much  unsaid  only 
because  they  could  not  yet  bear  to  hear  it. 
These  last  opportunities  were  very  precious 
because  they  must  be  few  and  short.  To  delay 
long  in  retirement  would  cause  the  multitude 
to  forget  him,  would  undo  his  work  and  in  fact 
be  an  abdication  of  his  claim  as  Messiah.  To 
precipitate  a  fatal  conflict  with  the  authorities 
before  his  disciples  were  prepared  in  mind  and 
heart  would  be  to  ruin  everything  at  his  own 
death. 

Like  Lincoln's  delay  in  issuing  the  emanci- 
pation proclamation  till  he  had  the  support  of 
the  nation,  it  was  judicious  deliberation.  As 
it  was,  one  disciple  betrayed,  another  denied, 
and  all  forsook  him.  Had  he  led  them  earlier 
to  the  supreme  ordeal  Peter  might  not  have 
been  alone  in  his  denials  or  Judas  in  solitary 
infamy  in  his  treason. 

The  mind  of  Jesus  was  far-seeing  and  saga- 
cious. He  expected  no  ends  without  the  use  of 
adequate  megns.  The  man  who  started  to 
build  without  counting  the  cost,  or  the  king 
who  with  an  army  of  ten  thousand  ventured  to 


142      THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

encounter  one  of  twenty  thousand,  he  called 
fools.     In  a  parable  of  Browning-like  audacity 
he  even  commended  the  one  good  quality  of  a 
despicable  thief  and  liar,  the  unjust  steward, 
who  acted  promptly  and  energetically  and  did 
not  waste  time  in  regrets  and  dreams.     It  may 
reasonably  be  asked  why  Jesus  did  not  take  the 
time  to  write  a  book  which  should  contain  a 
full  and  clear  statement  of  all  his  doctrines. 
Why  did  he   not  write  a  code  of  laws  and  a 
concise    interpretation    and    comment?      Why 
did  h^   not  at   least  gather  and  edit  his  dis- 
courses, parables,  beatitudes,  proverbs  and  say- 
ings?    I  do  not  think  that  his  failure  to  do  so 
was  the  result  of  neglect,  or  procrastination  or 
due  to  unexpected  and  premature  death,      I 
think  that  he  clearly  foresaw  his  death,   and 
that  he  made  what  seemed  to  him  to  be  the 
best  arrangements  for  perpetuating  and  extend- 
ing his  work  and  those  arrangements  did  not 
include  the  writing  of  a  book.      His  purpose 
was  to   produce    a  higher  type  of  life  in  the 
individual   and   in  society,  and  in  order  to  do 
that  he  preferred  suggestive  general  statements 
to  a  precise  and  formal  code  of  laws. 
.  If  Jesus  had  written  a  formal  code  or  system 
it  would  have  shared  the  fate  of  all  other  codes 
and  systems    and   been   gradually  superseded 


PREPARATION  OF  THE  APOSTLES   143 

and  disintegrated.  And  this  is  in  fact  what 
has  happened  to  those  of  Christ's  teachings 
which  his  disciples  have  formulated  most  pre- 
cisely. Christians  have  largely  explained 
away  the  gospel  statements  about  non-resist- 
ance, usury,  poverty,  divorce,  the  sacraments, 
the  Sabbath  and  the  taking  of  oaths.  The 
Master's  principle  is  good,  but  the  hard  and 
narrow  laws  supposed  to  be  based  on  them 
have  been  found  intolerable. 

When  people  of  a  certain  type  of  mind  make 
laws  which  result  in  intolerable  hardships  or 
absurdities,  they  do  not"  honestly  retreat  from 
their  untenable  theories,  but  try  to  save  their 
credit  by  some  ingenious  and  casuistical 
evasion.  It  was  this  indirect  and  dishonest 
dealing  which  pervaded  the  whole  Pharisaic 
system  that  above  all  things  else  provoked  the 
indignation  of  Jesus.  There  is  nothing  else 
that  he  says  with  such  repeated  and  such  ter- 
rific emphasis  as,  "Beware  of  the  Scribes, 
beware  of  the  Scribes,  beware  of  the  Scribes, 
for  their  leaven,  their  spirit,  is  hypocrisy. 
Woe  unto  you,  woe  unto  you,  woe  unto  you, 
Scribes  and  Pharisees,  hypocrites!" 

With  such  examples  before  him  of  the  result 
of  regarding  a  written  law  as  infallible  and 
unalterable,  it  is  no  wonder  that  Jesus   never 


144   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

formulated  his  teachings  or  prepared  a  code  of 
laws.  He  wanted  to  purify  and  gladden  the 
hearts  of  men  and  not  merely  to  control  their 
outward  acts,  to  upbuild  human  character  by 
filling  it  with  faith,  hope  and  love,  and  not  to 
undermine  it  by  making  change  and  progress 
difficult  or  tortuous.  Wise  and  elastic  legisla- 
tion has  its  place,  but  Jesus  did  not  think  the 
legislator's  methods  adapted  to  his  purpose. 

What  is  perhaps  more  surprising  is  that  he 
did  not  select  and  arrange  his  poems,  parables 
and  discourses  for  exact  preservation.  The 
work  of  the  great  poet  is  far  more  enduring, 
powerful  and  pervasive  than  that  of  the  legis- 
lator, but  all  the  great  poets  have  felt  as  Jesus 
did,  that  writing  was  only  a  means  to  an  end, 
and  that  life  only  is  truly  great. 

Jesus  could  never  have  been  satisfied  to  be  a 
mere  speaker  of  the  truth  any  more  than  a 
mere  hearer  of  it.  He  taught  men,  "If  ye 
know  these  things  happy  are  ye  if  ye  do 
them."  He  wanted  his  sayings  remembered. 
No  phrase  of  his  is  more  frequent  or  significant 
than,  "He  that  hath  ears  to  hear,  let  him 
hear."  He  told  his  disciples  that  he  wanted 
his  words  to  "sink  down  into  their  hearts," 
and  he  secured  just  the  perpetuation  of  his  say- 
ings that  he  desired,  the  preservation  of  their 


PREPARATION  OF  THE  APOSTLES  145 

substance  and  vitality  and  beauty  as  seed 
thoughts  and  not  as  rigid  and  obstructive 
dogmas.  In  spite  of  all  his  precautions  and  in 
spite  of  all  the  providential  variations  in  the 
reports  of  his  sayings,  we  see  how  "the  letter 
that  killeth"  has  been  exalted  by  many  above 
"the  spirit  that  giveth  life."  What  opposi- 
tion has  been  made  to  astronomy,  geology, 
philology  and  biology,  to  ethics  and  religion, 
by  those  who  have  perverted  a  body  of  liter- 
ature and  history  into  an  ultimate  and  infallible 
code  of  law!  What  royal  and  ecclesiastical 
tyrannies,  what  defence  of  human  slavery, 
what  absurd  sacramentarianism,  what  supersti- 
tious rites,  have  been  based  upon  the  supposed 
finality  and  inerrancy  of  Scripture!  Men  have 
thought  that  their  eternal  welfare  depended 
upon  a  drop  of  baptismal  water,  a  morsel  of 
eucharistic  bread,  a  few  words  of  priestly  abso- 
lution, or  the  utterance  of  a  set  confession  of 
faith.  All  this  is  remote  from  the  spirit  of 
Jesus.  He  attached  no  importance  to  forms 
and  ceremonies,  and  above  all  he  did  not 
attempt  to  shut  all  truth  in  a  book,  but  left  the 
course  of  progress  and  discovery  open,  giving 
men  as  their  only  rule,  loyalty  to  reason  and 
conscience  which  he  believed  would  "guide 
them  into  all  truth."    This  is  inductive  philos- 


146   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

ophy  on  a  higher  plane  than  Bacon  put  it, 
and  ready  to  yield  far  greater  results.  If  all 
men  could  be  persuaded  to  be  wholly  loyal  to 
truth  in  thought,  and  to  justice,  and  to  love  in 
action,  how  rapidly  the  conquest  of  natural 
forces  would  proceed  and  how  soon  poverty, 
disease  and  pain  would  disappear  from  the 
earth  and  the  kingdom  of  God  be  established 
in  all  lands! 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE    LAST  JOURNEY  TO  JERUSALEM 

If  Jesus  could  have  been  content  to  preach 
the  kingdom  of  God  in  general  terms,  without 
attacking  particular  abuses  or  setting  up  any 
personal  claims,  he  might  in  all  probability 
have  continued  to  preach  till  he  died  of  old 
age  without  any  more  serious  molestation 
from  the  authorities  than  he  had  already  met 
with.  Governing  bodies  dislike  trouble  and 
conflict.  This  was  the  usual  temper  of  the 
Sanhedrin.  After  the  death  of  Jesus  it  was 
reluctant  to  proceed  with  severity  against  the 
apostles  and  gladly  acquiesced  in  the  advice 
of  Gamaliel  to  let  them  alone  till  the  results 
of  their  work  were  seen.  The  Scribes  and 
Pharisees  were  just  as  unwilling  to  bring  a 
popular  prophet  to  formal  trial  as  the  Presby- 
terian General  Assembly  or  the  Methodist  Gen- 
eral Conference  to  try  a  heretical  professor. 
Trouble  and  odium  were  certain  and  advantage 
very  doubtful. 

But  this  timidity  and  temporizing,  natural  to 
a  council  of  elderly  men,  was  quite  alien  to 
147 


148   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

the  temper  of  Jesus.  He  was  courageous  and 
sincere.  He  could  not  evade  or  postpone 
what  he  deemed  a  duty.  He  was  "straitened," 
pressed,  and  burdened  in  soul,  until  his  work 
was  accomplished.  His  command  to  others 
was,  "Let  your  light  shine"  and  he  could  not 
hide  his  own  under  a  bushel.  It  was  from 
Jesus  that  James  learned  that  most  searching 
of  all  statements  in  the  Bible,  "To  him  that 
knoweth  to  do  good  and  doeth  it  not,  to  him  it 
is  sin."  It  would  have  been  easier  for 
Wycliffe  to  have  been  silent  about  transub- 
stantiation  arid  to  have  left  the  Bible  un- 
translated, it  would  have  been  easier  for 
Luther  to  have  expressed  his  opinions  only  in 
an  academic  way  in  the  classroom  instead  of 
nailing  them  on  the  church  door  as  a  challenge 
to  the  world,  it  would  have  been  easier  for 
John  Brown  to  have  hung  his  rifle  on  the  wall 
and  gone  to  hoeing  corn  or  shooting  rabbits, 
than  it  would  have  been  for  Jesus  to  assert  his 
Messiahship  only  to  a  circle  of  his  friends  or 
to  susceptible  inquirers  like  Mary  of  Bethany 
and  the  woman  of  Samaria. 

And  so  when  Jesus  judged  that  his  disciples 
were  sufficiently  trained,  and  that  to  delay 
longer  would  impair  their  faith  and  that  of  the 
multitude,    he  felt    that   his  hour   was   come, 


LAST  JOURNEY  TO  JERUSALEM  149 

and  he  set  himself  to  go  up  to  Jerusalem.  No 
strong,  young  man  with  the  blood  of  life 
coursing  healthily  through  every  vein  can  go 
deliberately  to  death  without  some  shrinking 
and  reluctance.  It  was  not  an  easy  thing  for 
Jesus  to  make  up  his  mind  to  go  to  Jerusalem 
and  there  challenge  the  authorities  to  a  com- 
bat to  the  death,  yet  that  was  what  he  felt  he 
must  do  or  else  renounce  his  claim  to  be  the 
Messiah.  There  was  no  middle  course.  He 
was  sent  by  God  with  a  message  to  the  nation 
or  he  had  no  message  to  anybody.  And  so, 
though  he  shrank  from  the  martyrdom  of  his 
body  at  Jerusalem,  he  shrank  still  more  from 
the  martyrdom  of  his  spirit  by  a  failure  to 
accomplish  the  work  to  which  he  felt  himself 
called.  The  agony  of  his  soul  showed  itself 
in  his  face  and  manner.  When  at  last  he 
called  his  disciples  to  follow  him  to  Jerusalem 
he  had  such  a  look  and  strode  forward  with 
such  determination  that  they  were  amazed  and 
afraid.     (Mark  10:  32.) 

"And  it  came  to  pass,  when  the  time  was 
come  that  he  should  be  received  up,  he  stead- 
fastly set  his  face  to  go  to  Jerusalem,  and  sent 
messengers  before  his  face:  and  they  went  and 
entered  into  a  village  of  the  Samaritans,  to 
make  ready  for  him.     And  they  did  not  re- 


ISO  THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

ceive  him,  because  his  face  was  as  though  he 
would  go  to  Jerusalem.  And  when  his  dis- 
ciples James  and  John  saw  this  they  said, 
'Lord,  wilt  thou  that  we  command  fire  to  come 
down  from  heaven,  and  consume  them  even  as 
Elijah  did?'  But  he  turned  and  rebuked  them, 
and  said,  'Ye  know  not  what  manner  of  spirit 
ye  are  of.  For  the  Son  of  Man  is  not  come 
to  destroy  men's  lives,  but  to  save  them.'  And 
they  went  to  another  village."  Surely  "he 
that  ruleth  his  own  spirit  is  greater  than  he 
that  taketh  a  city."  But  Jesus  did  not  direct 
his  disciples  to  record  this  incident.  He  who 
never  forgot  an  act  of  kindness,  who  appre- 
ciated even  the  gift  of  a  cup  of  cold  water,  and 
who,  touched  by  a  woman's  impulsive  devotion, 
commanded  that  "wherever  his  gospel  should 
be  preached  what  this  woman  had  done  should 
be  told  for  a  memorial  of  her,"  never  desired 
to  perpetuate  the  memory  of  an  insult  or  a 
wrong. 

These  poor,  besotted  Samaritans  did  not 
know  that  in  repulsing  this  tired  and  hungry 
wayfarer  they  were  rejecting  a  friend  and 
benefactor,  rejecting  the  man  who  has  lifted 
the  name  Samaritan  from  reproach  to  honor, 
and  made  it  synonymous  with  human  kind- 
ness.    Their   petty  little    race  prejudice  shut 


LAST  JOURNEY  TO  JERUSALEM  151 

everything  else  from  their  view.  They  knew 
only  that  he  was  a  Jew  and  was  on  his  way  to 
Jerusalem,  and  that  was  enough  to  condemn 
him  in  their  eyes.  So  here  as  at  Bethlehem 
and  Nazareth  he  was  "despised  and  rejected 
of  men,  a  man  of  sorrows  and  acquainted  with 
grief."  He  turned  sadly  away  and  went  to 
another  village. 

The  rejection  of  Jesus  by  this  Samaritan  vil- 
lage was  but  a  prophecy  of  his  ultimate  rejec- 
tion by  Jerusalem,  as  the  palms  and  hosannas 
which  greeted  him  upon  his  entry  are  a  pre- 
lude to  a  coming  world-wide  triumph. 

The  dramatists  and  poets  who  hold  the  mir- 
ror up  to  nature,  and  present  the  great  types 
of  human  character  in  their  ideal  strength  and 
fulness,  generally  exhibit  the  leading  traits  of 
a  hero  in  minor  examples  before  delineating 
his  crowning  achievement.  This  is  obviously 
wise  and  truthful,  for  in  the  nature  of  the  case 
no  one  leaps  into  excellence  of  any  kind  at 
one  bound.  Skill  comes  by  practice,  strength 
by  exertion,  self-mastery  by  the  discipline  of 
habit.  It  was  the  common,  the  daily,  habit  of 
Jesus  to  look  with  compassion  on  the  mistakes 
and  sins  of  men,  and  only  because  of  this 
habitual  and  practiced  compassion  was  he  able 
to  say  even  amid   the    agonies  of   the  cross, 


152   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

"Father,  forgive  them,  for  they  know  not  what 
they  do." 

Hitherto  Jesus  had  avoided  public  recogni- 
tion as  much  as  possible.  He  had  said  sternly 
to  many  whom  he  had  healed,  "See  thou  tell 
no  man."  Even  when  Peter  made  his  famous 
declaration,  "Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of 
the  living  God,"  and  Jesus  blessed  him  for  it, 
he  immediately  afterward  charged  his  disciples 
that  they  should  tell  no  man  that  he  was  the 
Christ.  But  now  as  he  drew  near  to  Jerusalem 
his  hour  was  come  and  his  plan  was  changed. 
Fulfilling  the  prophecy  of  Zechariah,  he  entered 
Jerusalem  in  modest  yet  royal  state.  He 
encouraged  the  people  to  shout  hosannas  to 
him.  Children  especially,  in  their  loving 
enthusiasm,  proclaimed  him  the  son  of  David, 
and  when  the  angry  priests  asked  him,  "Hear- 
est  thou  what  these  say?"  Jesus  answered  them, . 
"Yea;  have  ye  never  read,  Out  of  the  mouth 
of  babes  and  sucklings  thou  hast  perfected 
praise?  .  .  .  And  the  whole  multitude  of  the 
disciples  began  to  rejoice  and  praise  God  with 
a  loud  voice,  saying.  Blessed  be  thq  king  that 
cometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord.  And  some  of 
the  Pharisees  said  unto  him.  Master,  rebuke 
thy  disciples.  And  he  answered  and  said 
unto  them,  I  tell  you  that  if  these  should  hold 


LAST  JOURNEY  TO  JERUSALEM  153 

their  peace,  the  stones  would  immediately  cry 
out." 

He  had  taken  the  decisive  step.  He  had 
crossed  the  Rubicon.  He  had  burned  all 
bridges  behind  him.  He  had  proclaimed  him- 
self the  expected  Son  of  David,  the  king  who 
came  in  the  name  of  the  Lord.  No  middle 
course  remained.  He  must  enforce  his  claim 
or  sink  into  contempt. 


CHAPTER  XVII 


THE   TEMPLE 


Jesus  had  formed  his  plan  and  was  deter- 
mined to  attack  Jewish  formalism  and  iniquity 
in  the  temple  itself,  their  central  stronghold, 
and  thus  bring  the  question  to  a  decisive  issue. 
When  Martin  Luther  went  to  Rome  and  there 
saw  every  ecclesiastical  vice  full-blown,  his 
faith  was  undermined,  and  he  became  a  Protes- 
tant at  heart  and  ready  for  resistance  when  the 
occasion  permitted.  Every  previous  visit  of 
Jesus  to  Jerusalem  seems  to  have  had  a  like 
effect  upon  him.  Beautiful  as  was  the  archi- 
tecture of  the  temple,  its  beauty  aroused  in 
him  no  enthusiasm.  He  told  the  woman  of 
Samaria  that  it  had  no  special  privilege  as  a 
place  of  worship;  and,  though  he  wept  over 
the  city  of  Jerusalem,  he  spoke  without  a  sigh 
of  the  destruction  of  the  temple.  Perhaps  he 
looked  with  horror  upon  it  because  it  was  a 
monument  of  Herod's  crimes  and  remorse. 
Herod,  the  murderer  of  rivals,  of  priests,  of 
children  and  of  wife,  tortured  by  the  ghosts  of 
the  slain,  had  lavished  money  on  this  splendid 
154 


THE  TEMPLE  i55 

edifice  in  the  hope  that  he  might  thus  atone 
for  sin  and  find  peace  of  mind.       But  if  no 
taint  of  murder  and  infamy  had  clung  around 
it,  the  regular  routine  of  temple  services  would 
have  repelled  Jesus.     He   sought  a  house  of 
prayer   and    found    a   den   of   thieves.      Keen 
money-changers  and  no.sy  sellers  of  sheep  and 
oxen  filled  those  cloisters  which  he  would  like 
to  have  seen   occupied  by  wise  teachers  and 
devout  worshipers.     Worse  than  all,  the  tem- 
ple was  defiled  with  a  never-ceasing  stream  of 
blood.      Though    hundreds   of    years    before, 
David,   Isaiah   and    Micah   had  declared   that 
God  did  not  desire  sacrifices  of  sheep  and  oxen 
but  only  an  obedient  and  contrite  heart,  still 
the  repeated  declarations  of  the  prophets  had 
not  availed  to  abolish  the  hideous  system,  and 
the  greatest  prophet  of  all  was  forced  to  look 
upon  bloody  and  pagan  rites  which,  with  the 
strange  tenacity  of  religious  usages,  had  come 
down  from  primeval  savagery  and,  as  a  horrid 
survival,  defaced  a  cultivated  age. 

Jesus'must  have  felt  as  keenly  as  any  preced- 
ing prophet  the  folly  and  hurtfulness  of  sacri- 
fice, must  have  felt  as  did  his  apostles  that  the 
blood  of  bulls  and  goats  could  not  take  away 
sin,  and  that  the  whole  system,  like  all  other 
forms  of  ceremonial  righteousness  and  priestly 


156      THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

absolution,  deadened  the  conscience,  prevented 
repentance  and  encouraged  men  to  continue  in 
sin.  Yet  he  did  not  press  his  way  to  the  great 
altar  at  the  hour  of  morning  or  evening  sacri- 
fice and  seek  to  arrest  the  arm  of  the  officiating 
priest  as  he  was  in  the  act  of  slaying  the  lamb 
without  blemish.  Perhaps  he  thought  that  an 
attempt  to  do  so  would  fail  or  would  cause  a 
riot  in  which  he  might  die  by  some  obscure 
hand  in  a  misunderstood  and  undignified  strug- 
gle. At  any  rate,  instead  of  attacking  the  cen- 
tral evil,  the  atoning  sacrifice  itself  out  of 
which  many  smaller  evils  had  naturally 
developed,  he  began  his  assertion  of  authority 
by  assailing  the  more  unseemly  accessories  of 
the  system  of  sacrifices  rather  than  the  offering 
itself.  There  was  a  great  and  constant  demand 
for  animals  for  sacrifice,  and  dealers  in  sheep 
and  oxen  and  doves  had  been  allowed  by  the 
authorities  to  bring  these  beasts  and  birds  into 
the  outer  courts.  These  crowded  cattle  pens, 
offensive  to  eye  and  ear  and  nose,  must  have 
been  a  great  scandal,  not  only  to  those  who 
disbelieved  in  sacrifices  altogether,  but  to  all 
devout  worshipers.  But  the  traffic  was  lucra- 
tive, and  the  authorities,  while  doubtless  shar- 
ing in  the  profits,  professed  that  they  permitted 
the  cattle  to  be  there  only  for  the  convenience 


THE  TEMPLE  157 

of  those  who  desired  animals  for  sacrifice. 
Every  Jew  was  required  to  pay  annually  into 
the  treasury  of  the  temple  a  half  shekel  of 
Jewish  money,  and  many  made  large  voluntary 
gifts,  and  as  great  numbers  of  the  Passover 
visitors  were  of  the  "dispersed  among  the  Gen- 
tiles," and  brought  with  them  only  the  profane 
and  unlawful  money  of  the  heathen,  there  was 
a  very  brisk  and  very  unspiritual  business  of 
money-changing  always  in  progresss. 

All  this  cattle  dealing  and  money-changing 
rightly  seemed  to  Jesus  utterly  alien  to  the 
true  spirit  of  worship.  "He  made  a  scourge 
of  small  cords,  and  drove  all  the  traffickers  and 
the  sheep  and  the  oxen  out  of  the  temple;  and 
poured  out  the  changers'  money  and  overthrew 
the  tables;  and  said  unto  them  that  sold  doves, 
"Take  these  things  hence."  It  was  a  strange 
scene. — the  vehement  young  prophet  with  his 
uplifted  scourge,  used  perhaps  on  the  backs  of 
sluggish  oxen  but  not  needed  against  men,  for 
the  most  callous  butcher  and  the  most  heart- 
less Shylock  were  startled  for  a  moment  into 
shame  and  fear  by  the  indignant  look  and  the 
clarion  voice  of  the  lion  of  Judah,  and  fled  in 
all  haste.  But  they  soon  rallied  and  demanded 
protection  in  the  privileges  for  which  they  had 
paid.      The  priests    and   elders   promptly  re- 


.158      THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

sponded  to  the  call,  and  sent  a  strong  deputa- 
tion to  inquire  into  the  matter.  Conscious  of 
their  own  participation  in  the  guilt  of  the 
traffic,  they  did  not  like  to  encounter  Jesus  on 
this  issue,  yet  they  were  not  willing  to  surren- 
der their  illicit  gains  and  to  submit  to  an  em- 
phatic public  rebuke  without  a  struggle. 

So  the  chief  priests  and  the  elders,  venerable 
in  their  robes  of  office  and  attended  by  an  im- 
posing retinue,  came  to  Jesus  as  he  was  talking 
to  the  great  crowd  that  the  excitement  had 
gathered,  and  with  magisterial  formality  de- 
manded by  what  authority  he  had  acted  and 
who  gave  him  that  authority.  To  face  this 
august  body,  reinforced  doubtless  by  an  angry 
crowd  of  the  expelled  cattle-dealers  and 
money-changers,  was  a  sharp  test  of  the 
sovereignty  Jesus  had  just  permitted  his  dis- 
ciples to  proclaim,  yet  he  met  it  with  skill  and 
courage.  But  circumstances  were  now  very 
different.  Enemies  and  not  friends  formed  the 
majority  of  the  crowd,  and  many  sympathizers 
and  friends  were  doubtless  overawed  or  per- 
plexed at  the  sight  of  the  priests  and  the  elders. 
When  a  private  man  opposes  a  large  body  of 
officials  there  is  a  strong  presumption  against 
him.  Jesus  felt  this  and  so,  instead  of 
nakedly  asserting  that  he  was  the  Messiah  and 


THE  TEMPLE  159 

had  been  sent  by  God  to  set  up  a  kingdom,  an 
assertion  which  might  have  given  the  authori- 
ties an  opportunity  to  arrest  him  for  blasphemy, 
he  asked  them  a  question  about  his  predeces- 
sor John.  Was  John  sent  by  God?  They  were 
thrown  into  confusion  by  the  question.  They 
dared  not  say  Yes,  for  John  had  testified  of 
Jesus.  They  dared  not  say,  No,  for  the  multi- 
tude considered  John  a  true  prophet.  There 
was  an  awkward  delay  while  they  reasoned 
among  themselves,  and  the  multitude  began  to 
wonder  and  the  more  irreverent  to  laugh  at 
their  confusion.  When  at  last  the  answer 
came,  "We  cannot  tell,"  their  discomfiture 
was  complete,  and  even  the  very  tipstaves  and 
bailiffs  who  attended  these  dignitaries  must 
have  laughed  at  their  ludicrous  helplessness  as 
Jesus  said  in  turn,  "Neither  tell  I  you  by  what 
authority  I  do  these  things."  They  were  so 
confused  and  crestfallen  that  they  had  not  even 
the  sense  to  beat  an  immediate  retreat,  and 
Jesus  in  searching  and  terrible  parables  showed 
them  that  they  were  worse  than  the  publicans 
and  the  harlots,  and  that  the  opportunities 
which  they  had  abused  would  soon  be  taken 
from  them. 

They  withdrew  at  last  in  fright  and  anger 
with   the   words   ringing  in  their   ears,    "The 


i6o   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

kingdom  of  God  shall  be  taken  from  you,  and 
given  to  a  nation  bringing  forth  the  fruits 
thereof."  But  their  rage  was  for  the  time 
impotent,  for  "when  they  sought  to  lay  hands 
on  him,  they  feared  the  multitude,  because 
they  took  him  for  a  prophet."  It  was  neces- 
sary and  it  was  congenial  to  use  policy.  Could 
they  not  beat  this  audacious  orator  at  his  own 
game?  Among  all  their  veteran  casuists  was 
there  no  one  who  could  outwit  this  inexperi- 
enced and  unlearned  young  man?  "They  took 
counsel  how  they  might  entangle  him  in  his 
talk." 

They  framed  a  shrewd  plot.  Every  patriotic 
Jew  longed  for  the  deliverance  of  his  native 
land  from  the  Roman  yoke.  It  was  warmly 
debated  whether  to  pay  tribute  to  Caesar  was 
not  apostasy  from  Judaism.  The  extreme 
zealots  refused  to  pay  the  hateful  Roman  taxes, 
and  others  did  so  with  misgiving  and  under 
compulsion.  Some  wily  lawyer,  experienced 
in  all  the  arts  of  cross-examination,  suggested 
to  his  associates  that  they  ask  Jesus  whether 
such  tribute  was  lawful  or  not.  If  he  says.  No, 
the  Romans  will  arrest  him  for  sedition.  If  he 
says.  Yes,  he  will  destroy  all  his  claim  to  be 
regarded  as  a  patriot  and  leader.  His  popu- 
larity will  cease  and  his  pretensions  to  be  the 


THE  TEMPLE  i6i 

Messiah  collapse.  To  throw  Jesus  off  his 
guard  the  priests  and  elders  did  not  go  them- 
selves, but  entrusted  the  execution  of  the  plot 
to  disciples  whose  youth  and  apparent  ingenu- 
ousness might  lead  Jesus  to  give  a  full  and 
circumstantial  answer.  And  so  these  apt 
young  learners  in  the  school  of  hypocrisy  came 
up  to  him  with  the  appearance  of  the  deepest 
concern  and  as  though  the  question  weighed 
heavily  upon  their  consciences  and  they  had 
vainly  sought  relief  elsewhere,  and  said,  "Mas- 
ter, we  know  that  thou  teachest  the  way  of  God 
in  truth  and  carest  not  for  any  man.  Tell  us, 
therefore.  Is  it  lawful  to  give  tribute  unto 
Caesar,  or  not?"  Quick  as  a  flash  Jesus  saw 
who  had  sent  them  and  what  their  purpose 
was,  and  he  said  sternly,  "Why  tempt  ye  me, 
ye  hypocrites?  Show  me  the  tribute  money. 
And  they  brought  unto  him  a  penny.  And  he 
said  unto  them,  Whose  is  this  image  and  super- 
scription?" They  did  not  like  the  turn  things 
had  taken  and  began  to  forebode  disaster,  but 
they  could  not  refuse  to  answer  so  plain  a  ques- 
tion, and  they  said  unto  him,  "Caesar's." 
And  then  came  the  simple  and  crushing  state- 
ment of  Jesus,  "Render  therefore  unto  Caesar 
the  things  that  are  Caesar's;  and  unto  God  the 
things  that  are  God's."     Then  the  young  men 


i62  THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

had  their  answer,  and,  crestfallen,  they  left 
Jesus  and  went  their  way  and  reported  the  mat- 
ter to  the  elders. 

Countless  millions  have  read  with  delight  of 
the  baffling  of  these  old  intriguers.  It  is  in- 
deed a  beautiful  and  wonderful  thing  to  see 
how  native  purity  and  sense  are  often  more 
than  a  match  for  the  most  crafty  and  experi- 
enced villainy.  Thus  the  painters  make  the 
youthful  archangel  triumph  over  the  grim  and 
gray  arch-fiend. 

The  next  attempt  to  discredit  Jesus  as  a 
teacher  came  from  another  quarter.  The  very 
same  day  the  Sadducees,  who  denied  that  man 
had  a  soul  or  would  live  after  death,  on  the 
ground  that  nothing  to  this  effect  is  revealed 
in  the  law  of  Moses,  came  to  him  and  tried  to 
reduce  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  to 
absurdity  by  putting  the  case  of  a  woman  who 
had  had  seven  husbands.  Whose  wife  was  she 
to  be  in  heaven?  He  told  them  that  "in  the 
resurrection  they  neither  marry,  nor  are  given 
in  marriage,  but  are  as  the  angels  of  God  in 
heaven."  Having  answered  the  direct  ques- 
tion of  the  Sadducees,  Jesus  next  replied  to 
their  concealed  innuendo  that  there  was  no 
resurrection,  and  easily  showed  that  if  there  is 
no  formal  statement  in  the  Old  Testament  of 


THE  TEMPLE  163 

the  doctrine  of  a  future  life,  it  is  frequently 
implied.  He  took  for  illustration  the  familiar 
phrase,  "I  am  the  God  of  Abraham,  the  God 
of  Isaac,  and  the  God  of  Jacob,"  and  added, 
"God  is  not  the  God  of  the  dead,  but  of  the 
living." 

Thrice  had  Jesus  signally  and  conspicuously 
defeated  and  silenced  his  opponents  in  debate, 
"and  after  that  they  durst  not  ask  him  any 
question  at  all."  More  than  this,  some  of  the 
younger  and  nobler  spirits  among  the  Scribes 
accorded  him  a  generous  admiration,  and 
added,  "Master,  thou  hast  well  said." 

It  was  perhaps  this  evidence  of  susceptibility 
to  nobler  feeling  among  the  disciples  of  the 
Scribes  and  Pharisees  that  led  Jesus  to  utter  his 
tremendous  denunciations  of  those  "blind 
guides,"  those  "hypocrites,"  who  "were  shut- 
ting up  the  kingdom  of  heaven  against  men, 
neither  going  in  themselves  nor  suffering  those 
who  would  go  in  to  enter."  In  the  most  ter- 
rible stream  of  invective  in  literature,  beside 
which  the  Philippics  of  Demosthenes,  the  ora- 
tions of  Cicero  against  Catiline,  the  impeach- 
ment of  Hastings  by  Burke  seem  tame  and 
colorless,  Jesus,  rising  in  a  steady  and  awful 
climax,  called  down  woe  after  woe  upon  those 
"whited  sepulchres"   fair  without  but   within 


i64  THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

full  of  "all  uncleanness."  Eight  times, 
almost  as  if  he  intended  to  make  a  formal  con- 
trast between  these  maledictions  against  the 
sinner  with  which  he  closed  his  public  ministry 
and  the  beatitudes  upon  the  righteous  with 
which  he  had  opened  it,  eight  times  Jesus  re- 
peated with  ever-increasing  emphasis,  Woe 
unto  you,  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  hypocrites! 
Disciples  and  descendants  of  the  murderers  of 
preceding  prophets,  "fill  up  the  measure  of  your 
fathers.  Ye  serpents,  ye  generation  of  vipers, 
how  can  ye  escape  the  damnation  of  hell!" 

It  was  strange  language  to  address  to  a  body 
of  doctors  of  divinity  and  ruling  elders  in  the 
church.  Is  there  not  something  startling  and  ap- 
palling in  the  fact  that  the  gentle  and  merciful 
Jesus  who  so  readily  pardoned  the  thief  and 
the  adulteress,  and  who  never  uttered  a  harsh 
word  against  those  whom  we  are  accustomed  to 
think  of  as  the  vicious  and  criminal  classes,  but 
was  so  pitiful  toward  their  failings  that  he  was 
called  the  friend  of  sinners, — that  the  patient 
and  hopeful  Jesus  should  think  the  state  of 
these  Scribes  and  Pharisees  so  hopeless?  Does 
it  not  suggest  that  as  love  is  the  supreme  and 
central  virtue,  so  cold,  calculating,  respectable 
selfishness  is  the  cardinal  and  damning  sin?  It 
is  at  any  rate  matter  for  deep  thought  that  all 


THE  TEMPLE  165 

Christ's  severe  denunciations  were  visited  upon 
priests,  teachers  of  the  law  and  elders  in  the 
church,  upon  professedly  religious  and  out- 
wardly respectable  people.  And  indeed  it  is 
clear  that  such  people,  being  above  others  in 
knowledge,  opportunity  and  privilege,  ought 
to  be  much  better  than  others  or  they  are  much 
worse. 

How  these  priests  and  lawyers  in  their  robes 
of  office,  these  teachers  accustomed  to  the 
meek  interrogatories  of  their  pupils,  to  the 
submissive  obedience  of  their  servants,  to  the 
awe  of  the  common  people  for  their  "broad 
phylacteries"  and  reverend  aspect,  how  these 
men,  blown  up  with  pride  by  the  breath  of  pros- 
perity and  applause,  must  have  been  startled 
at  the  first  words  of  public  rebuke  they  had 
ever  listened  to!  In  their  own  opinion  they 
were  not  very  bad.  Some  of  them  doubtless 
thought  themselves  good.  Others  who  had 
qualms  of  conscience  now  and  then  as  they 
"devoured  widows'  houses"  and  then  "for  a 
pretense  made  long  prayers"  had  grown  into 
their  hypocrisies  so  gradually  and  had  become 
so  hardened  in  them  by  habit,  that  they  were 
quite  comfortable. 

As  Jesus  turned  their  corrupt  hearts  inside 
out,  some  of  these  men   as  they  winced   and 


i66  THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

cowered  saw  for  a  moment  all  their  foul  de- 
formities, and  saw,  too,  in  swift,  bright  vision, 
the  long-forgotten  aspirations  of  innocent  boy- 
hood, but  in  most  cases  the  moral  fibres  had 
been  too  long  unstrung  for  any  strong  and  sin- 
cere response  to  a  call  to  repentance.  Pride  is 
a  stubborn  and  pugnacious  devil,  and  it  soon 
rallied  every  other  evil  spirit  in  human  nature 
to  its  support.  The  breach  between  them  and 
Jesus  was  irreparable.  Their  authority  had 
been  shaken  to  its  foundations.  Another  such 
assault  might  overthrow  it.  Jesus  must  be 
silenced  at  any  cost,  and  so  "the  chief  priests 
and  the  scribes  and  the  elders  assembled  at  the 
palace  of  Caiaphas,  the  high  priest,  and  con- 
sulted that  they  might  take  Jesus  by  subtilty 
and  kill  him.''  "The  righteous  is  an  abomina- 
tion to  the  wicked."  Yet  these  warnings  and 
denunciations  were  not  without  good  effect. 
They  not  only  strengthened  the  faith  of  the 
older  disciples,  and  fixed  that  of  newer  ones, 
but  they  were  seed  sown  for  a  future  har\'est, 
for  we  read  in  the  Acts  that  "a  great  company 
of  the  priests"  became  obedient  to  the  faith. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE   LAST  SUPPER   AND   FAREWELL 

When,  in  humiliation  and  anger,  the  Phari- 
sees left  him,  Jesus  saw  very  clearly  that  they 
had  exhausted  their  verbal  strategy  and  that 
their  next  attempt  would  be  a  violent  one,  and 
tha^  it  would  result  in  his  death.  He  could 
not  be  consistent  with  his  claims  and  character 
and  either  fly  or  resist.  To  save  his  life  by  flight 
would  be  to  lose  what  was  dearer  to  him  than 
life,  the  accomplishment  of  his  appointed  task. 
To  fight  would  be  a  still  more  fatal  error. 
Force,  "the  last  argument"  of  earthly  kings, 
proves  nothing.  If  Jesus  had  called  his  fol- 
lowers to  arms,  he  would  in  all  probability 
have  been  defeated,  but,  if  by  any  possibility 
he  had  won  victories  in  war,  they  would  have 
done  nothing  to  prove  the  truth  of  his  doctrine. 
He  would  have  established  a  fatal  precedent, 
and,  instead  of  the  unique  and  sublime  moral 
eminence  he  now  has,  he  would  have  had  only 
the  lurid  and  ever-dimming  fame  of  the  Ara- 
bian fanatic  whose  angry  appeal  to  the  sword 
has  drenched  so  many  lands  in  blood. 
167 


i68  THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

There  was  no  course  open  to  Jesus  but  to 
stay  where  he  was  and  prepare  the  minds  of 
his  disciples  for  the  worst.  His  own  convic- 
tion that  he  was  the  Messiah  was  now  com- 
plete. It  had  acquired  the  strength  of  habit, 
it  was  supported  by  the  recognition  of  dis- 
ciples, above  all  it  had  been  fused  and  hard- 
ened in  the  fierce  fires  of  opposition.  The 
ordinary  accretions  of  thought  are  like  the 
gentle  deposits  of  the  aqueous  rocks;  and, 
like  the  friable  sandstone,  yield  to  influences 
as  gentle  as  those  which  created  them.  But 
those  convictions  that  have  been  formed  in  the 
furnace  of  suffering  and  persecution  are  like 
the  igneous  rocks  hardened  by  volcanic  fires 
and  the  pressure  of  mountain  weights. 

Jesus  had  greatly  longed  to  complete  another 
Jewish  year.  The  passover  season  was  en- 
deared by  the  memories  of  childhood  and 
associated  with  every  feeling  of  patriotism  and 
religion.  He  felt  sure  that  the  Jewish  ritual- 
ism against  which  he  had  preached  was  soon  to 
fall,  and  that  the  daily  and  yearly  sacrifices 
would  cease.  He  knew  that  his  death  would 
form  a  new  epoch  in  the  national  life,  and  he 
desired  to  link  the  future  to  the  past  as  closely 
and  tenderly  as  possible  in  the  minds  of  his 
disciples  and  their  successors. 


LAST   SUPPER   AND   FAREWELL     169 

Accordingly,  as  they  were  eating  the  paschal 
supper,  "Jesus  took  bread  and  blessed  it  and 
broke  it,  and  gave  it  to  the  disciples,  and  said, 
Take,  eat,  this  is  my  body.  And  he  took  the 
cup  and  gave  thanks,  and  gave  it  to  them,  say- 
ing. Drink  ye  all  of  it;  for  this  is  my  blood  of 
the  new  testament,  which  is  shed  for  many  for 
the  remission  of  sins." 

In  two  respects  this  figurative  language  has 
been  perverted.  The  words,  "This  is  my 
body,"  have  been  understood  literally,  and  the 
doctrine  of  transubstantiation  has  been  built 
upon  them.  It  would  be  just  as  sensible  to 
take  literally  and  materially  the  words,  "I  am 
the  door, "  "I  am  the  good  shepherd,  '  "I  am  the 
true  vine,"  "lam  the  way!"  When  we  consider 
how  boldly  figurative  the  language  of  Jesus 
habitually  was,  how  he  told  men  that  faith, 
like  a  grain  of  mustard  seed,  could  remove 
mountains,  when  we  reflect  upon  his  frequent 
use  of  such  paradoxes  as,  "Let  the  dead  bury 
their  dead,"  it  seems  strange  that  the  figure, 
"This  is  my  body,"  naturally  suggested  by  the 
occasion,  should  have  been  made  the  warrant 
for  the  monstrous  doctrine  that  every  time  a 
priest  utters  a  certain  formula  of  consecration 
over  a  bit  of  bread  it  is  transformed  into  the 
body  of  Jesus.    This  seems  to  me  mere  fetichism 


I70     THE  CARPENTER    PROPHET 

and  magical  incantation,  and  infinitely  removed 
from  the  spirit  of  the  religion  of  Jesus. 

But  the  Protestant  can  throw  no  stone  at  the 
Catholic  in  this  matter,  for  he  perverts  just  as 
grossly  the  clause,  "shed  for  many  for  the  re- 
mission of  sins."  It  was  inevitable  that  after 
the  death  of  Jesus  those  who  sought  to  abolish 
the  Mosaic  sacrifices  should  declare  that  Christ 
was  the  Lamb  of  God  and  that  now  that  he  had 
been  offered  there  was  no  need  of  further  sacri- 
fice for  sin.  The  figurative  language  is  beauti- 
ful and  appropriate,  but  it  is  a  strange 
distortion  of  its  meaning  to  get  out  of  it  the 
doctrines  of  vicarious  atonement  and  imputed 
righteousness. 

The  life  and  death  of  Jesus  have  awakened 
many  to  righteousness  and  turned  many  from 
sin.  "The  blood  of  the  martyrs  is  the  seed  of 
the  church";  and  the  blood  of  the  central 
figure  in  human  history  has,  more  than  that  of 
any  earlier  prophet  or  later  apostle,  roused 
men  from  the  living  death  of  sensuality,  greed 
and  worldliness,  and  brought  them  into  the  life 
of  righteousness.  It  -has  produced  that  peni- 
tence, faith  and  effort  which  have,  by  God's 
grace,  loosed  the  yoke  and  remitted  the  guilt 
of  sin,  but  it  is  for  no  one  a  substitute  for  his 
personal  righteousness. 


LAST  SUPPER  AND  FAREWELL    171 

On  this  farewell  occasion  Jesus  performed  an- 
other beautiful  symbolic  act.  After  the  supper 
he  "laid  aside  his  garments,  and  took  a  towel 
and  girded  himself,  and  poured  water  into  a 
basin  and  washed  the  feet  of  his  disciples,"  It 
was  fitting  that  he  who  "came  not  to  be  minis- 
tered unto  but  to  minister"  should  make  his 
last  act  one  of  humble  service.  On  their  way 
to  Jerusalem  the  apostles  had  contended  among 
themselves  as  to  who  should  be  the  greatest  in 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,  and  Jesus  had  said  to 
them,  "Whosoever  will  be  great  among  you, 
let  him  be  your  servant."  On  another  oc- 
casion, as  we  learn  from  Paul,  who  had  received 
by  tradition  the  precious  saying  not  recorded 
in  any  of  the  gospels,  Jesus  had  declared,  "It 
is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive."  To 
give  is  a  paternal,  a  kingly,  a  godlike  act;  to 
receive  is  a  childlike,  a  subject,  a  human  act. 
The  recipient  can  but  show  gratitude,  while 
the  benefactor  shows  mercy.  So  Jesus,  the 
king  among  men,  made  himself  as  the 
humblest  servant  and  girded  himself  to  wash 
the  feet  of  his  disciples. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

JUDAS   ISCARIOT 

It  does  not  appear  that  Jesus  made  any  ex- 
ception, but  washed  the  feet  of  Judas  in  his 
turn.  Perhaps  he  hoped  that  it  was  not  even 
yet  too  lafe  by  an  act  of  love  to  calm  the  per- 
turbed spirit  and  win  back  the  lost  affection  of 
the  wretched  man  who  betrayed  him. 

But  Judas  had  determined  upon  his  course, 
and  the  touching  incidents  of  the  last  supper 
only  increased  his  anger  and  alienation.  The 
same  flower-juices  that  the  bee  transforms  into 
honey  the  spider  distils  into  venom.  The  gos- 
pel of  the  kingdom  that  was  to  lift  the  other 
disciples  to  righteousness  was  to  sink  Judas 
into  deeper  sin.  As  far  as  Judas  was  con- 
cerned, Jesus  had  preached  in  vain  that  "a 
man's  life  consisteth  not  in  the  abundance  of 
the  things  that  he  possesseth"  but  in  the  state 
of  his  heart  and  mind;  that  men's  lasting 
treasures  were  in  heaven,  and  that  those  who 
17a 


JUDAS  ISCARIOT  173 

hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness  are 
blessed.  To  Judas  "the  kingdom"  had  seemed 
to  be  the  real  and  great  thing.  The  beatitudes 
and  spiritual  ideals  were  to  this  worldly  man 
amiable  extravagances  to  be  tolerated  only 
because  they  might  be  useful  in  winning  men 
into  the  kingdom.  He  was  the  treasurer  and 
carried  the  bag,  and  as  long  as  there  were 
great  crowds  of  enthusiastic  disciples  and  as 
the  contributions  of  the  wealthy  men  and 
women  who  ministered  unto  Jesus  flowed  in 
freely,  Judas  was  well  satisfied.  But  when  it 
became  more  and  more  evident  that  Jesus 
really  meant  to  sacrifice  himself  to  these  im- 
practicable ideals  and  expected  his  followers 
to  do  the  same,  Judas  rebelled.  He  was  a  dis- 
ciple for  office  and  power  and  wealth,  and 
events  had  gradually  opened  even  his  eyes  to 
the  fact  that  he  could  not  obtain  them  as  a  dis- 
ciple of  Jesus.  Then  he  was  one  of  those  men 
who  are  thrown  into  an  agony  by  the  smallest 
word  of  censure.  A  little  while  before,  Mary 
had  broken  a  box  of  precious  ointment  on  the 
head  of  Jesus,  and  Judas  had  murmured  about 
it  as  a  waste  and  with  hypocritical  compassion 
had  said  that  it  might  have  been  sold  for  the 
benefit  of  the  poor.  Jesus  had  gently  and 
sadly  replied,  in  effect,  I  shall  not  be  long  with 


174  THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

you,  Judas,  you  need  not  grudge  me  this 
tribute  of  love;  but  the  rebuke,  mild  as  it  was, 
had  rankled  in  the  vain  man's  breast.  He 
was  a  thief,  too,  and  his  guilty  conscience  per- 
haps saw  suspicion  in  these  words. 

Moreover,  he  was  the  kind  of  man  who  liked 
to  stand  well  with  the  authorities,  and  the 
recent  breach  of  Jesus  with  the  rulers  had 
greatly  shocked  him.  It  became  his  convic- 
tion that  Jesus  was  embarked  in  a  foolish  and 
desperate  venture,  and  that  all  who  stayed 
with  him  would  share  his  destruction,  and  he 
determined  to  save  what  he  could  from  the 
wreck.  "  So  he  went  to  the  chief  priests  and 
bargained  with  them  to  betray  Jesus  into  their 
hands.  "And  they  covenanted  with  him  for 
thirty  pieces  of  silver." 

It  is  at  once  the  most  shameful  and  the  most 
niggardly  bargain  in  history.  For  once  the 
greed  and  cunning  of  Judas  were  overmatched, 
and  it  was  when  he  met  the  greed  and  cunning 
of  corporate  wealth. 

Judas  had  pledged  his  word,  and  if  he  had  a 
passing  pang  of  remorse  he  quenched  it  by  the 
thought  of  this  obligation.  Jesus  had  watched 
him  during  the  supper.  He  saw  that  he  was 
unrepentant  and  joined  to  his  idolized  money. 
It  was  useless  to  strive  longer,  and  Jesus  drove 


JUDAS   ISCARIOT  175 

him  forth  with  the  words,  "What  thou  doest, 
do  quickly"  ;  and  Judas,  in  a  tempest  of  inward 
rage  but  with  a  simulated  calm  that  deceived 
the  other  disciples,  left  to  complete  his  in- 
famous agreement.  He  fled,  as  did  Satan  from 
Paradise,  to  return  no  more. 

His  name  is  the  most  execrable  in  human 
history,  for  he  violated  the  most  sacred  obliga- 
tions to  the  noblest  of  masters,  apostatized 
from  the  lowest  motives  and  in  the  meanest 
and  most  detestable  manner. 

The  withdrawal  of  Judas  was  a  relief  to  all 
the  company.  Sorrow  had  seized  the  hearts 
of  the  disciples  as  Jesus  had  declared  that  one 
of  them  would  betray  him,  and  now  that  the 
traitor  was  gone,  Jesus  comforted  them  with 
tender  words.  "Let  not  your  heart  be 
troubled:  ye  believe  Jn  God,  believe  also  in 
me.  In  my  Father's  house  are  many  man- 
sions." Continuing  his  farewell,  he  said  in 
substance,  I  am  only  going  before  to  prepare 
a  place  for  you.  I  shall  watch  you,  I  shall  be 
with  you;  whatever  you  shall  ask  me,  I  will 
give  you.  The  work  I  have  begun  is  of  God, 
and  "he  that  believeth  on  me,  the  works  that  I 
do  shall  he  do  also;  and  greater  works  than 
these  shall  he  do;  because  I  go  unto  the 
Father."  .  .  .  "My   Father    is    greater    than 


176     THE   CARPENTER   PROPHET 

I  .  .  .  ;  and  as  the  Father  gave  me  command- 
ment, even  so  I  do.  Arise,  let  us  go  hence." 
.  .  .  "And  when  they  had  sung  a  hymn,  they 
went  out  into  the  mount  of  Olives."  ' 


CHAPTER  XX 


GETHSEMANE 


Jesus  had  thought  through  every  problem 
of  man's  life.  He  saw  very  clearly  from  thou- 
sands of  examples  that  goodness  and  truth  do 
not  secure  a  prophet  against  opposition  and 
persecution;  but  that,  on  the  contrary,  the 
greater  and  more  active  a  good  man's  virtue  is, 
the  more  likely  he  is  to  arouse  the  hatred  of  all 
bad  men  whose  gains  and  influence  are  threat- 
ened. The  righteous  are  an  abomination  to 
the  wicked,  and  the  wicked  will  do  their 
utmost  to  rid  themselves  of  what  they  hate. 
An  actively  good  man  must  expect  to  be 
assailed  by  bad  men  in  property,  person  and 
reputation.  Jesus  has  warned  his  followers  of 
all  this,  and  one  of  his  most  comprehensive 
precepts  is,  "Fear  not  them  that  kill  the  body 
and  after  that  have  no  more  that  they  can  do." 
To  kill  the  body  is  after  all  a  small  thing. 
Epictetus  said  to  the  tyrant  who  threatened 
him  with  death,  "You  may  kill  me  but  you 
cannot  hurt  me."  The  immortal  mind  is  un- 
177 


178      THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

impaired  by  death,  nay,  its  knowledge  and 
power  are  enlarged  when  it  is  "from  its  prison 
released  and  freed  from  its  bodily  chain." 
Jesus  not  only  says  that  the  soul  cannot  be 
hurt,  he  says  that  the  body  cannot.  "There 
shall  not  a  hair  of  your  heads  perish."  The 
mortal  body  itself,  in  that  spiritual  revivifica- 
tion of  which  the  new  birth  of  trees  and  flowers 
is  but  a  faint  foreshadowing,  will  live  again  in 
richer  glory,  for  after  its  sowing  in  corruptioh 
it  will  be  raised  in  incorruption.  "Wherefore 
comfort  ye  one  another  with  these  words." 
The  belief  in  immortality  is  necessary  to  man's 
happiness  and  progress.  There  can  be  no  solid 
virtue  unless  men  fear  dishonor  more  than 
death;  but  life  with  all  its  drawbacks  is  so 
sweet  that  if  death  should  be  believed  to  be 
extinction,  the  desire  to  cling  to  the  present 
life  would  be  injuriously  strengthened  by  that 
erroneous  belief.  A  man  whose  faith  it  is  that 
time  is  but  a  part  of  eternity,  and  that  this  life 
is  a  probation,  has  immeasurably  stronger 
motives  to  virtue  than  a  materialist  who  has 
the  gloomy  and  despairing  opinion  that  death 
ends  all. 

It  may  seem  strange  that  after  Jesus  had 
comforted  his  disciples  there  should  have  been 
any  further  wavering  or  fear  on  their  part,  and 


GETHSEMANE  179^ 

still  stranger  that  after  he  had  said,  "Let  not 
your  hearts  be  troubled,"  he  should  himself 
have  passed  almost  immediately  to  the  supreme 
agony  of  Gethsemane.  But  these  revulsions  of 
feeling  will  seem  strange  only  to  those  who  are 
superficial  observers  of  the  human  heart.  Ob- 
jects change  their  appearance  as  we  draw  nearer 
to  them.  That  which  at  a  distance  we  contem- 
plate with  philosophic  calm  rouses  very  lively 
feeling  when  we  are  face  to  face  with  it. 

The  apostles  had  seemed  firm  in  their  faith 
and  courage  in  the  light  and  cheerful  upper 
room,  but  as  they  came  out  from  the  friendly 
shelter  into  the  chill  air  to  take  what  they 
had  been  forewarned  was  their  last  journey 
with  Jesus,  their  courage  began  to  ooze 
away.  Jesus  marked  the  change  in  face  and 
manner  and  said  to  them,  "All  ye  shall  be 
offended  because  of  me  this  night."  It  was 
not  said  in  reproach,  but  to  warn  and 
strengthen  them,  and  led  by  the  impulsive 
Peter  each  one  said,  "Though  I  should  die  with 
thee,  yet  will  I  not  deny  thee."  "Then  cometh 
Jesus  with  them  into  a  place  called  Gethsem- 
ane, and  saith  unto  the  disciples,  Sit  ye  here, 
while  I  go  and  pray  yonder.  And  he  took 
with  him  Peter  and  James  and  John  and  began 
to  be  sorrowful  and  very  heavy.     Then  saith 


i8o   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

he  unto  them,  "My  soul  is  exceeding  sorrow- 
ful even  unto  death.  .  .  .  And  he  went  a  little 
further,  and  fell  on  his  face  and  prayed,  say- 
ing, O  my  Father,  if  it  be  possible,  let  this  cup 
pass  from  me*  Nevertheless  not  as  I  will,  but 
as  thou  wilt." 

There  has  been  much  discussion  as  to  the 
meaning  of  the  expression  "this  cup."  I 
think,  however,  that  its  meaning  is  made  clear 
by  comparing  it  with  similar  expressions  used 
elsewhere.  There  is  a  legend  in  the  Talmud 
to  the  effect  that  the  angel  of  death  at  first 
slew  men  with  a  sword,  but  that  in  compassion 
a  cup  was  substituted.  In  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews  we  read  that  Jesus  "tasted  death  for 
every  man."  From  these  passages  it  seems 
clear  that  the  cup  from  which  Jesus  shrank  was 
the  bitter  cup  of  death.  If  his  spirit  had  not 
thus  shrunk  from  "leaving  the  warm  precincts" 
of  this  house  of  clay,  Jesus  would  not  have 
been  the  highest  type  of  man.  He  loved 
humanity  and  the  work  he  wished  to  do  for  it. 
Could  that  work  not  be  accomplished  equally 
well  in  some  other  and  less  painful  way  than 
by  his  premature  and  violent  death?  That,  I 
take  it,  was  the  burden  of  his  agony.  But  the 
greatness  of  his  shrinking  from  death  is  the 
measure  of  the  greatness  of  his  faith  and  obedi- 


GETHSEMANE  i8i 

ence.  The  spirit  triumphed  over  every  bodily 
weakness.  If  Jesus  had  not  wished  to  escape 
from  suffering  and  death,  there  would  have 
been  no  merit  in  his  obedience  to  conscience. 
It  is  this  sensitive  heroism  that  appeals  to  us. 
If  he  had  been  without  hopes  and  fears,  he 
would  have  been  insipid  as  a  character  and 
useless  as  an  example. 

For  wise  purposes,  the  law  of  suffering  seems 
to  be  as  universal  and  inexorable  as  the  law  of 
gravitation.  The  very  Captain  of  our  Salvation 
was  made  perfect  by  it;  and  each  soul  on  its 
way  to  strength  and  joy  must  pass  through  its 
Gethsemane. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  pangs  of  con- 
science or  of  fear  in  the  mind  of  Judas  as  he 
took  his  solitary  way  through  the  shadows  to 
keep  his  wicked  covenant,  the  evil  elements  in 
his  nature  still  had  the  mastery,  and  as  Jesus, 
strengthened  by  prayer,  returned  to  his  weary 
disciples,  Judas  appeared  with  a  company  of 
armed  officers  sent  by  the  chief  priests  and 
elders.  Coward  as  he  was  in  everything  good, 
he  was  bold  in  his  baseness.  He  came  for- 
ward with  an  impudent  pretense  of  loyalty  and 
said,  "Hail,  master!"  and  kissed  him.  The 
officers  approached  and  Peter  drew  a  sword 
and  made  a  momentary  effort  at   resistance. 


i82  THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

But  Jesus  told  him  to  put  his  sword  into  its 
sheath.  He  surrendered  himself,  "the  dis- 
ciples all  forsook  him  and  fled,"  and  the 
officers  led  him  away  to  a  travesty  of  a  trial. 


CHAPTER  XXI 


THE   TRIAL 


When  a  single  man  opposes  society,  when 
with  a  new  idea  he  attempts  to  set  aside  long- 
established  usage,  it  is  by  most  men  taken  for 
granted  that  the  single  man  is  wrong.  This 
judgment,  natural  to  all  men,  is  doubly  potent 
and  binding  in  the  case  of  the  officers  who  are 
charged  with  the  duty  of  maintaining  the  ex- 
isting system.  Some  charity  is  due  even  to 
the  chief  priests  and  elders  who  made  the 
greatest  blunder  and  committed  the  greatest 
crime  in  history. 

Even  if  the  chief  priests  and  elders  had  not 
been  "stirred  up  with  hatred  and  revenge" 
because  they  had  a  few  days  before  been 
publicly  rebuked  as  hypocrites,  as  whited 
sepulchres  and  as  vipers,  it  would  have  been 
impossible  for  such  a  body  of  men  to  have 
given  Jesus  a  fair  trial.  Only  a  few  earnest 
men  keep  their  minds  constantly  open  to  new 
truths.  The  great  majority  settle  into  grooves 
of  opinion  along  which  they  run  smoothly  and 
out  of  which  they  can  scarcely  move  at  all. 
183 


i84     THE   CARPENTER   PROPHET 

There  were  in  that  assembly  half-blind, 
mumbling,  toothless  old  men,  with  decayed 
intellect  and  dulled  sensibilities,  mere  drift- 
wood upon  the  stream  of  time.  There  were 
bold,  adroit,  unscrupulous  men,  resolved  to 
maintain  power  and  privilege  at  any  cost  and 
ready  unhesitatingly  to  sacrifice  any  one  who 
threatened  to  cross  their  path  and  thwart  their 
plans.  There  were  narrow-minded  bigots, 
sternly  orthodox,  and  utterly  unable  to  see 
even  the  possibility  of  error  in  the  established 
creed  or  to  imagine  a  higher  type  of  faith.  To 
dare  to  question  tradition,  usage,  and  the  wis- 
dom of  local  majorities  is  always  shocking  to 
some  minds.  Those  persons  who  decide  by 
reason  and  evidence  are  few.  Men,  like 
sheep,  mostly  follow  leaders.  Those  who  to- 
day are  shocked  at  a  denial  of  Christ's  supreme 
deity  would  have  been  just  as  much  shocked 
at  the  first  assertion  of  it.  The  other  name  for 
orthodoxy  is  conservatism;  and  conservatism, 
like  the  centripetal  motion  of  the  earth,  repre- 
sents only  half  the  force  that  directs  the  true 
course  of  events. 

As  for  any  real  examination  of  the  merits  of 
the  case,  Jesus  might  almost  as  well  have  been 
tried  by  a  tribunal  of  foxes,  wolves,  and  bears, 
so  swayed  were  the  members  of  that  assembly 


THE  TRIAL  185 

by  low  cunning,  by  greed,  and  by  hate.  What 
a  ghastly  farce  that  trial  was!  A  wise,  pure, 
benevolent  man  before  that  crowd  of  extortion- 
ers, drunkards,  adulterers,  scheming  politicians 
and  blind  devotees.  Most  of  them  doubtless 
sincerely  thought  that  they  were  putting  down 
a  dangerous  agitator  and  bold  blasphemer,  and 
regarded  their  own  lapses  from  morality  as 
venial  peccadilloes  in  comparison  with  his 
dreadful  and  subversive  impiety.  A  small 
number,  perhaps,  regarded  him  with  pity  as  a 
poor,  deluded  fanatic  whom  they  would  gladly 
have  spared,  if  he  could  have  been  induced  to 
take  advice  and  abandon  his  preposterous 
claims.  If  Joseph  of  Arimathaea,  "a  counsel- 
lor," and  Nicodemus,  "a  ruler,"  just  and  good 
men,  and  if  the  prudent  and  merciful  Gamaliel 
who  later  prevailed  upon  the  Sanhedrin  to  let 
the  apostles  alone,  if  these  or  others  like  them 
were  in  the  assembly  that  condemned  Jesus,  it 
does  not  appear  that  they  uttered  a  word  in 
his  behalf. 

The  governing  spirits  of  the  assembly  had 
convened  it  on  purpose  to  put  Jesus  to  death. 
They  had  taken  counsel  together  as  to  how 
they  should  do  it.  They  had  bribed  Judas  to 
betray  him  and  they  had  suborned  false  wit- 
nesses to  testify  against  him.     It  was  a  pre- 


i86   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

meditated  judicial  murder  with  a  cut  and  dried 
program.  But,  while  justice  and  mercy  were 
trampled  upon,  the  forms  of  law  were  scru- 
pulously respected.  It  was  necessary  to  the 
comfort  of  that  body  of  lawyers  that  the  pro- 
ceedings and  the  record  should  be  regular. 
They  might  murder  a  man,  but  must  not  omit 
a  technicality.  So  the  perjured  witnesses  were 
called;  but  they  had  been  badly  coached  or 
were  dismayed  by  their  surroundings,  so  that 
their  testimony  was  contradictory  and  ineffec- 
tive. It  seemed  almost  as  if  after  all  they 
might  have  to  let  Jesus  go  with  some  light 
punishment,  for  want  of  a  definite  and  serious 
charge  against  him. 

It  is  one  of  the  clearest  of  proofs  that  Jesus 
had  never  claimed  to  be  God  that  his  enemies 
in  the  extremity  of  their  embarrassment  and 
anger  never  made  any  such  charge  against  him. 
That  charge  had  indeed  once  been  made  in  the 
heat  of  debate,  but  Jesus  had  shown  so  un- 
equivocally that  he  only  claimed  to  be  the 
Son  of  God,  and  that  similar  titles  had  been 
borne  by  others,  that  his  accusers  on  this 
occasion  did  not  think  it  worth  while  to  repeat 
a  charge  that  he  would  surely  again  disavow. 
They  took  hold  of  his  rhetorical  expression, 
"Destroy  this  temple  and  I  will  build  it  again  in 


THE  TRIAL  187 

three  days,"  but  apart  from  the  uncertainty  of 
its  meaning,  if  the  worst  and  most  literal  con- 
struction were  given  to  it,  the  offense  of  speak- 
ing thus  was  not  capital. 

To  prevent  the  breaking-down  of  the  prose- 
cution, the  high  priest  said  to  him,  "I  adjure 
thee  by  the  living  God,  that  thou  tell  us 
whether  thou  be  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God," 
To  this  direct  appeal  an  answer  as  direct  was 
given.  Translating  the  words  of  Jesus  into 
a  modern  equivalent,  they  are,  You  have 
spoken  truly,  and  hereafter  you  shall  yourself 
see  me  sitting  on  the  right  hand  of  power,  and 
coming  in  the  clouds  of  heaven.  The  high 
priest  dramatically  rent  his  clothes  and  said  to 
his  associates.  He  has  spoken  blasphemy; 
what  further  need  have  we  of  witnesses?  Ye 
have  heard  his  blasphemy.  What  is  your 
verdict?  They  answered,  He  is  guilty  of 
death. 

The  court  doubtless  heard  the  confession  of 
Jesus  with  a  great  sigh  of  relief.  From  the 
confusion  of  the  witnesses  and  the  indefinite- 
ness  of  their  testimony,  the  priests  and  elders 
had  begun  to  fear  a  long  and  tedious  trial  and 
the  possible  final  escape  of  the  prisoner. 

Jesus  never  surrendered  his  convictions 
either  to  mobs  or  to  governors  and  stands  as 


i88   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

much  for  independence  of  thought  as  for 
righteousness  of  act.  The  court  held  that  his 
confession  brought  him  under  that  terrible  law 
against  heresy  found  in  the  thirteenth  chapter 
of  Deuteronomy.  "If  there  arise  among  you  a 
prophet,  or  a  dreamer  of  dreams,  and  giveth 
thee  a  sign  or  a  wonder,  even  if  the  sign  or  the 
wonder  come  to  pass  whereof  he  spake  unto 
thee,  saying.  Let  us  go  after  other  gods,  which 
thou  hast  not  known,  and  let  us  serve  them; 
thou  shalt  not  hearken  unto  the  words  of  that 
prophet,  or  that  dreamer  of  dreams.  .  .  .  That 
prophet  or  that  dreamer  of  dreams  shall  be  put 
to  death." 

Deuteronomy  is  not  a  Mosaic  book,  but  was 
written  in  the  time  of  Josiah  to  aid  in  the 
extirpation  of  idolatry  and  the  establishment 
of  the  national  church.  It  accomplished  the 
desired  ends.  Like  the  Spanish  Inquisition,  it 
stopped  the  growth  of  many  mischievous 
errors,  but  at  the  terrible  price  of  preventing 
the  development  of  new  truths.  Wheat  and 
tares  alike  were  cut  down  by  the  same  remorse- 
less scythe  of  bigotry.  When,  at  the  instiga- 
tion of  the  Westminster  Assembly,  Parliament 
passed  the  dreadful  statute  by  which  any  one 
who  denied  the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures  or 
the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  was  to  be  put  to 


THE  TRIAL  189 

death,  the  wise  Cromwell  uttered  the  far- 
sighted  protest,  "I  beseech  you,  brethren,  by 
the  mercies  of  God,  that  you  think  it  possible 
that  you  may  be  mistaken." 

But  no  such  spirit  as  that  of  Cromwell  and 
his  fellow  Independents  tempered  the  furious 
fanaticism  of  Judea.  What  would  it  have 
availed  for  Jesus  to  have  given  them  a  sign 
when  the  law  expressly  said  that  they  were 
to  disregard  all  signs?  They  were  proof 
against  conviction,  like  the  juryman  who 
naively  said,  "I  had  made  up  my  mind  and  the 
evidence  could  not  shake  me." 

The  fact  is  that  the  preaching  of  the  king- 
dom of  God  by  this  audacious  mechanic  threat- 
ened all  the  sources  of  wealth  and  power  that 
the  chief  priests  and  elders  possessed,  and  it  is 
not  in  ordinary  human  nature  to  give  up  its 
privileges  and  means  of  livelihood  without 
protest  and  struggle.  Jerusalem  was  a  sacer- 
dotal city.  Probably  twenty  thousand  people 
were  dependent  directly  or  indirectly  for  their 
honors  and  income  upon  the  existing  cere- 
monies and  interpretations.  A  radical  change 
might  mean  "a  clean  sweep,"  and  the  mob 
that  howled,  "Crucify  him,  crucify  him," 
when  Jesus  was  brought  before  Pilate,  was  just 
such  a  mob  as  Demetrius  the  silversmith  gath- 


I90   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

ered  at  Ephesus  with  the  watchword,  "Our 
trade  is  in  danger."  The  Christianity  of  Jesus 
was  not  mere  singing  and  praying,  was  not 
dreams  and  ecstasies,  was  not  a  long,  elaborate 
and  speculative  creed,  was  not  quiescent  opin- 
ion, but  was  hard,  constant,  practical  work  in 
clothing  the  naked,  in  feeding  the  hungry,  in 
teaching  the  ignorant  and  prejudiced,  in  heal- 
ing the  sick,  in  doing  good  in  all  possible 
ways,  and  in  opposing  evil  in  high  and  low 
places  at  all  times  and  at  all  hazards.  It  was 
not  a  theory  of  agriculture.  It  was  ploughing 
in  the  cold,  it  was  reaping  in  the  heat,  it  was 
weeding  and  pruning  and  grafting  and  manur- 
ing. It  was  the  hard,  plain,  disagreeable  but 
necessary  work  of  life. 

Jesus  was  not  crucified  for  uttering  beatitudes 
or  for  healing  the  sick,  but  for  assailing  the 
abuses  connected  with  the  Sabbath,  the  Tem- 
ple, the  sacrifices  and  the  Law,  abuses  by 
which  large  numbers  of  influential  men 
obtained  their  wealth  and  honors.  The 
priests  and  scribes  who  condemned  him  were 
fighting  for  their  position  and  interests  just  as 
a  modern  political  ring  fights  civil  service  re- 
formers, or  as  the  southern  planters  who  owned 
slaves  and  the  northern  merchants  who  sold 
them  supplies,  fought  Lovejoy,   Garrison  and 


THE  TRIAL  191 

Sumner.  It  is  the  old  sad  story  of  human 
folly,  selfishness,  and  wickedness.  As  those 
eighteen  upon  whom  the  tower  of  Siloam  fell 
were  not  sinners  above  all  other  Galileans,  so 
the  men  who  condemned  Jesus  acted  only  as 
others  of  their  class  have  acted  under  similar 
tremendous  temptation.  It  is  easy  for  us  all 
to  condemn  the  sins  of  other  people,  but  the 
just  law  of  Jesus  is,  "Judge  not  that  ye  be  not 
judged." 

Looking  back  upon  the  crucifixion,  now  that 
Jesus  is  seen  to  be  the  foremost  man  of  the 
race  and  his  precepts  the  greatest  source  of 
happiness  and  progress  in  human  history,  the 
folly  and  wickedness  of  those  who  condemned 
him  to  death  seem  inconceivable.  Yet  who 
can  see  the  oak  in  the  acorn?  Who  in  the 
sight  of  the  overpowering  present  has  any 
vivid  sense  of  the  distant  future?  Men  who  are 
amazed  at  the  stupidity  and  wickedness  of  the 
Pharisees  and  Sadducees  who  rejected  and  con- 
demned Jesus,  will  themselves  reject  without  a 
moment's  hesitation  and,  as  they  profess,  with- 
out the  slightest  misgiving,  the  present  natural 
development  and  practical  application  of  the 
principles  of  Jesus,  will  in  fact  reject  him  as 
completely  as  did  their  predecessors  in  office. 
A  House  of  Lords  and  a  board  of  bishops  are 


192   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

still  very  conservative  bodies,  and  have  little 
patience  with  radical  reformers. 

That  a  man  is  antagonized  by  society  is  of 
course  not  in  itself  any  proof  that  he  is  a  re- 
former or  a  righteous  man.  The  way  of  trans- 
gressors is  hard,  and  most  men  who  are  put  to 
death  by  human  law  perish  because  they  dis- 
obey divine  laws  and  run  against  "the  thick 
bosses  of  the  Almighty's  buckler."  Most  men 
who  stand  alone  against  the  world  are  fighting 
vainly  against  "the  stars  in  their  courses." 
But  though  criminals  far  outnumber  martyrs, 
society  is  not  excusable  for  its  mistakes,  nor  is 
the  disciple  of  Jesus  at  liberty  to  surrender  his 
convictions  to  the  authority  of  the  leaders  of 
opinion  or  to  the  multitude.  JesuS,  foreseeing 
that  he  would  be  crucified  if  he  persisted  in 
declaring  and  acting  upon  his  conviction,  snot 
only  continued  his  preaching  and  work  and 
gave  men  an  example  of  loyalty  to  con- 
science, but  said  in  express  and  emphatic 
words,  "He  that  taketh  not  up  his  cross  and 
followeth  after  me  cannot  be  my  disciple." 
His  test  of  the  human  spirit  is  very  searching. 
Man  is  called  to  battle  to  the  death  not  for  a 
positive  knowledge  of  absolute  truth  but  for 
his  own  deliberate  judgment,  though  he  knows 
that  it  is  incomplete  and  liable  to  error.     Not 


THE  TRIAL  i93 

a  single  soldier  in  all  "the  noble  army  of 
martyrs"  who  pre-eminently  praise  God  and 
exalt  man,  died  for  the  whole  and  exact  truth. 
Each  one  died  for  the  little  glimpse  and  frag- 
ment of  truth  that  his  soul  had  received,  died 
for  the  love  of  a  small  and  imperfect  vision  of 
good,  died  hungering  and  thirsting  after  a 
righteousness  to  which  he  had  not  fully 
attained,  died  to  receive  the  blessing  of  the 
great  chief  Martyr  of  the  race  and  Captain  of 
our  Salvation. 

If  the  modicum  of  truth  for  which  he  suffers 
and  dies  is  too  small  and  too  much  alloyed  to 
be  recognized  by  the  busy  world,  the  would-be 
martyr  changes  into  the  poor,  scorned  heretic. 
Yet  these  younger  and  less  fortunate  brothers 
of  the  apostles,  less  happily  tempered  and 
less  favored  by  circumstances,  are  doubtless 
as  sincere  as  their  wiser  fellows  and  though 
they  bring  no  fruit  to  perfection  will  be  rec- 
ognized by  the  righteous  Judge  as  having 
labored  in  the  vineyard.  Though  they  seem 
not  to  have  "beaten  their  music  out,"  but  only 
to  have  made  discord  amid  the  harmonies  of 
faith,  yet  if  they  have  but  "endeavored  with 
sincere  intent"  they  will  have  the  rich  reward 
of  those  who  do  what  they  can,  for  by  the  just 
Judge  it  is  required  of  a  man  according  to  what 


194   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

he  hath  and  not  according  to  what  he  hath  not. 
The  best  and  noblest  man  that  ever  lived  was 
put  to  death  because  stupid  men  could  not 
learn,  because  proud  men  would  not  stoop, 
because  rich  men  would  not  disgorge  ill-gotten 
gains,  because  revengeful  men  could  not  for- 
give. 


CHAPTER   XXII 


PONTIUS   PILATE 


The  Jewish  Sanhedrin  voted  that  Jesus  was 
guilty  of  heresy  and  blasphemy  and  ought  to 
die,  but,  as  Judea  was  a  Roman  province,  the 
council  had  no  power  to  carry  its  sentence  into 
execution.  It  therefore  took  Jesus  before  the 
Roman  governor  and  requested  him  to  put 
Jesus  to  death.  Pilate  was  at  first  disposed  to 
refuse  their  request  and,  indeed,  to  think  very 
lightly  of  their  accusations.  Like  other  edu- 
cated Romans,  he  was  accustomed  to  great 
latitude  in  philosophical  speculations  and  was 
tolerant  toward  all  religions.  As  a  Roman 
governor  he  maintained  toward  the  religious 
beliefs  of  the  conquered  Jews  a  neutrality  very 
much  like  that  of  an  English  governor  of  India 
to-day  toward  the  views  of  Hindoos  and 
Mohammedans.  Pilate  was  quite  indifferent 
to  the  opinions  and  ceremonies  of  the  Jews. 
Like  Gallio,  he  "cared  for  none  of  those 
things."  But  if  indifferent  in  matters  of 
mere  opinion,  he  was  watchful  in  regard  to  all 
195 


196   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

treasonable  or  seditious  acts,  and  when  the 
rulers  accused  Jesus  of  claiming  to  be  a  king 
he  was  at  once  aroused.  He  questioned  Jesus 
and  was  relieved  to  learn  that  the  kingdom  in 
question  was  purely  spiritual.  His  Roman 
sense  of  justice  again  asserted  itself,  and  he 
declared  to  the  accusers,  "I  find  no  fault  in 
this  man";  but  they  were  urgent  in  declaring 
that  the  pretensions  of  Jesus  to  kingship  were 
dangerous  to  Roman  sovereignty.  "If  thou 
let  this  man  go  thou  art  not  Caesar's  friend." 
Pilate  trembled  at  these  words.  The  cruel  and 
suspicious  Tiberius  was  upon  the  throne  and 
Pilate  knew  that  if  he  seemed  in  any  way  to 
countenance  or  wink  at  the  claim  to  sover- 
eignty of  any  rival,  his  imprudence  and  negli- 
gence would  be  quickly  punished  by  deposition 
or  death.  Moreover,  the  attitude  of  the  Jew- 
ish priests  and  of  the  rabble  influenced  by  them 
was  so  threatening  that  Pilate  feared  a  revolt. 
He  tried  to  placate  them  by  a  nominal  con- 
demnation to  be  followed  by  the  release  of  the 
prisoner  as  an  act  of  grace.  He  sought  to 
appease  their  hate  by  scourging  Jesus,  but  all 
in  vain.  They  were  implacable  and  cried  out 
continually,  "Crucify  him,  crucify  him."  It 
was  much  against  Pilate's  sense  of  justice  to 
accede,  and  he  vainly  tried  to  rid  himself  of 


PONTIUS  PILATE  197 

responsibility  by  washing  his  hands  before  the 
multitude  and  declaring,  "I  am  innocent  of 
the  blood  of  this  just  person."  Though  all  the 
people  answered,  "His  blood  be  on  us  and  on 
our  children,"  yet  Pilate  did  not  transfer  his 
guilt  to  them,  but  must  be  joined  with  them  in 
condemnation.  He  doubtless  also  said  to 
himself  in  palliation  of  this  judicial  murder, 
It  is  better  that  one  man  should  be  unjustly 
condemned  than  that  an  insurrection  should  be 
provoked  in  which  many  persons  would  be 
killed.  It  is  thus  that  men  tamper  with  con- 
science and  find  specious  excuses  for  their  sins, 
abusing  their  reason  by  compelling  it  to  find 
reasons  for  their  inclinations.  Every  judge  is 
ultimately  judged.  Pilate,  like  Belshazzar, 
has  been  weighed  in  the  balances  and  found 
wanting.  His  baseness  sprang  from  weakness 
and  fear.  Christian  legend  says  that  he  was 
ever  afterward  haunted  by  remorse,  and  that, 
like  Judas,  he  ended  his  days  by  suicide. 
However  this  may  be,  it  would  have  been  well 
both  for  his  peace  and  his  fame,  if  he  had  not 
been  called  to  face  a  crisis  to  which  he  was 
not  equal. 


CHAPTER   XXIII 

THE    CRUCIFIXION 

When  the  sentence  of  crucifixion  had  at  last 
been  wrung  from  the  reluctant  Pilate,  Jesus  was 
delivered  to  the  soldiers.  Before  executing 
the  sentence,  these  brutal  menj  with  the  con- 
nivance if  not  at  the  instigation  of  their  supe- 
riors, mocked  and  tortured  their  patient  and 
unresisting  prisoner.  "They  stripped  him  and 
put  on  him  a  scarlet  robe.  And  when  they 
had  plaited  a  crown  of  thorns  they  put  it  upon 
his  head,  and  a  reed  in  his  right  hand;  and 
they  bowed  the  knee  before  him,  saying.  Hail, 
King  of  the  Jews!  And  they  spat  upon  him 
and  took  the  reed  and  smote  him  on  the  head." 

Human  nature  is  capable  of  strange  ex- 
tremes. At  its  best  it  is  little  lower  than  the 
angels,  at  its  worst  it  is  little  better  than  the 
beasts.  Soldiers  sometimes  become  indifferent 
to  the  sight  of  blood  and  agony;  nay,  there  are 
cases  in  which  men- have  learned  to  delight  in 
the  spectacle  of  human  suffering.  "Say  not 
thou.  What  is  the  cause  that  the  former  days 
were  better  than  these?  for  thou  dost  not 
198 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  199 

inquire  widely  concerning  this."  Nothing  bet- 
ter measures  the  moral  progress  of  nineteen 
Christian  centuries  than  the  increased  sensi- 
bility and  compassion  of  man.  There  are  still 
dreadful  isolated  cases  in  which  prisoners 
accused  of  peculiarly  revolting  crimes  have 
been  tortured  by  mobs,  but  the  whole  official 
and  popular  sentiment  is  different.  Prisoners 
of  war  and  professional  gladiators  are  no 
longer  "butchered  to  make  a  holiday."  Mod- 
ern compassion  barely  tolerates  capital  punish- 
ment of  any  kind,  and  where  the  death 
sentence  is  still  permitted  society  requires  that 
it  should  be  as  painless  as  possible;  but  the 
hard  heart  of  antiquity  sought  to  inflict  the 
utmost  measure  of  pain  and  degradation  upon 
the  wretch  whom  its  harsh  laws  condemned. 
Under  the  teaching  and  example  of  Jesus,  man 
has  done  much  to  "work  out  the  beast"  and 
"let  the  ape  and  tiger  die." 

The  brutality  of  the  soldiers  toward  Jesus  did 
not,  however,  spring  altogether  from  mere 
wanton  cruelty  and  love  of  boisterous  sport. 
Jesus  suffered  from  their  ignorance  and  race 
prejudice.  Jewish  rebels  and  pretenders  to 
sovereignty  had  caused  the  Romans  much 
trouble  and  loss  of  life  and  kept  the  army  in  a 
constant  state  of  exasperation;  and  it  was  in 


200   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

part  to  avenge  fallen  comrades  and  to  humil- 
iate a  hated  class  that  Jesus  was  reviled  and 
beaten.  The  ignorance  and  stupidity  of  men 
cause  them  to  class  together  under  the  same 
name  persons  whose  character  and  purposes 
are  utterly  diverse.  Hard  and  cruel  as  these 
poor  soldiers  were,  if  they  could  have  looked 
into  the  heart  of  the  Son  of  Man  and  seen  that 
he  was  indeed  the  friend  of  sinners,  there  was 
not  a  man  of  them  who  would  not  have  shown 
him  kindness  instead  of  insult.  But  alas!  the 
vices  and  mistakes  of  the  great  are  as  con- 
tagious as  their  virtues  and  wisdom;  and  these 
rude  soldiers,  though  they  must  have  been  per- 
plexed at  the  mild  and  benignant  aspect  of 
their  prisoner,  took  It  for  granted  that  in  spite 
of  his  gentle  looks  he  was  the  troublesome  and 
dangerous  rebel  he  had  been  condemned  by 
the  authorities  as  being.  Looks  are  deceptive. 
There  is  many  a  mild-mannered  cut-throat,  and 
the  mistake  in  regard  to  Jesus  is  of  the  same 
character  as  the  subsequent  one  in  which  Paul 
was  supposed  by  a  Roman  captain  to  be  the 
Egyptian  chief  of  an  army  of  four  thousand 
murderers.     (Acts  21:  38.) 

After  the  soldiers  had  mocked  Jesus  they  led 
him  away  to  crucifixion. 

The  faith  and  fortitude  of  Jesus  had  remained 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  201 

unshaken  during  these  dreadful  indignities  and 
tortures.  His  physical  strength  even  was  not 
altogether  exhausted,  for  when  at  last  the 
soldiers,  tiring  of  their  cruel  sport,  led  him 
away  he  was  able  for  a  time  to  carry  alone 
the  heavy  cross  on  which  he  was  to  suffer. 
A  great  company  of  people  followed  him, 
and  many  of  the  women,  with  the  natural 
tenderness  of  the  sex,  wept  and  lamented. 
When  one  has  suffered  pain  and  wrong,  a  sud- 
den and  unexpected  manifestation  of  sympathy 
often  causes  a  revulsion  of  feeling  that  com- 
pletely destroys  self-command.  The  disciples 
of  Jesus  had  forsaken  him,  the  priests  had  con- 
demned and  reviled  him,  the  soldiers  had 
mocked  and  scourged  him.  After  many  hours 
of  neglect  by  friends  and  jeering  and  beating 
by  enemies,  there  came,  like  sunshine  after 
storm,  looks  of  pity  and  words  of  kindness. 
The  tradition  that  Veronica,  one  of  these  com- 
passionate women,  wiped  the  sweat  and  blood 
from  the  face  of  Jesus  is  in  all  probability  true, 
for  the  act  is  womanlike.  Jesus  was  deeply 
moved,  but  he  was  not  unmanned. 

On  his  way  to  the  cross  Jesus  spoke  to  the 
sorrowing  women  in  the  lofty  poetic  language 
habitual  to  him,  in  sentences  not  less  balanced 
and  figurative  than  those  he  had  been  wont  to 


2oa      THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

use  in  the  days  when  he  "rejoiced  in  spirit." 
Deeper  and  more  beautiful  than  the  retention 
to  the  last  of  his  wonted  manner  of  speech  was 
the  persistence  of  his  life-long  habit  of  care 
for  the  welfare  of  others.  Almost  the  last 
words  of  him  who  came  "not  to  be  ministered 
unto  but  to  minister"  were  a  lamentation  over 
a  doomed  city  and  a  warning  to  his  hearers  to 
escape  from  it.  "Daughters  of  Jerusalem, 
weep  not  for  me  but  for  yourselves,  and  for 
your  children,"  is  but  an  iteration  of  the  com- 
passionate cry,  "O  Jerusalem,  Jerusalem,  how 
often  would  I  have  gathered  thy  children 
together,  as  a  hen  gathereth  her  chickens  under 
her  wings,  and  ye  would  not!  Behold,  your 
house  is  left  unto  you  desolate." 

The  sad  procession  at  last  reached  the  bald 
summit  of  Calvary,  and  there  Jesus  was 
stripped  of  his  garments  and  nailed  to  the 
cross. 

Crucifixion  inflicts  unnecessary  and  wanton 
pain.  It  leaves  the  vital  organs  unimpaired 
and  usually  produces  death  by  sheer  force  of 
protracted  suffering.  The  blood  oozes  away 
drop  by  drop  from  the  pierced  hands  and  feet, 
every  nerve  shoots  and  tingles  with  pain,  the 
throat  is  parched,  the  veins  are  swollen  till 
they  seem  about  to  burst. 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  203 

The  mysterious  law  connecting  mind  and 
body,  by  which  at  times  each  overpowers  the 
other,  was  not  broken  in  the  case  of  Jesus. 
There  is  a  limit  to  human  power.  There  is  an 
extremity  of  physical  suffering  which  the  mind 
cannot  resist. 

Jesus  had  believed  that  if  he  prayed  to  the 
Father  his  prayer  would  bring  legions  of  angels 
to  his  assistance.  But  he  had  refused  to  ask 
for  them  and  had  prayed  only,  "If  it  be  pos- 
sible, let  this  cup  pass  from  me;  nevertheless 
not  as  I  will  but  as  thou  wilt."  Still  it  is  evi- 
dent that  he  had  not  ceased  to  think  some 
interposition  possible,  and  when  the  hours 
dragged  on  and  at  last  it  broke  upon  him  that 
he  was  to  be  allowed  to  die  in  agony  and 
shame  with  no  sign  that  heaven  in  any  way 
regarded  him,  his  faith  and  courage  were 
shaken  and  he  broke  forth  into  a  bitter  cry  of 
doubt  and  fear.  The  tragedy  of  life  is  not  the 
death  of  the  body  but  the  anguish  of  the  soul 
when  it  loses  faith  in  God  and  hope  for  man. 
Jesus  had  lived  for  many  months  in  a  state  of 
spiritual  exaltation.  He  had  heard  himself 
called  the  beloved  Son  in  whom  the  Father 
was  well  pleased,  he  had  had  ecstatic  visions 
and  an  ineffable  peace  and  joy  in  communing 
with  God  and  in  praying  and  in  teaching  his 


204   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

disciples  to  pray,  "Thy  kingdom  come,  thy 
will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven." 
And  now  came  the  rude  shock.  Instead  of 
these  delightful  meditations  and  hopes,  instead 
of  applauding  multitudes  and  docile  disciples, 
he  was  in  the  power  of  cruel  enemies,  he  had 
been  derided  and  scourged,  and  was  hanging 
in  torture  upon  the  cross. 

Intolerable  agony  wrung  from  Jesus  the 
despairing  words,  "My  God,  my  God,  why 
hast  thou  forsaken  me?"  The  eclipse  was  but 
for  a  moment.  Jesus  had  pierced  more  deeply 
into  the  heart  of  the  great  mystery  of  pain 
than  any  other.  He  knew  even  better  than 
Paul  that  in  some  way  he  was  to  be  "made 
perfect  through  suffering."  Even  in  that 
dreadful  hour  he  saw  "the  joy  that  was  set 
before  him  and  endured  the  cross,  despising 
the  shame."  Serenity  and  faith  returned. 
He  cheered  a  humbler  fellow  sufferer,  a 
common  thief,  by  assuring  him  of  God's  mercy 
and  of  future  life;  he  prayed  for  the  pardon 
of  his  murderers,  and  then,  as  was  most 
fitting,  his  last  earthly  thoughts  turned  to 
the  subject  of  his  first  consciousness.  As 
the  great  soul  of  Jesus  sank  beneath  the 
earthly  horizon,  it  turned  again  to  the 
gentle  and  beautiful  being  whose  loving  fac,e. 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  205 

whose  low,  sweet  voice,  whose  tender  caresses 
and  unwearied  ministrations  formed  the  first 
impressions  upon  his  infant  mind.  The  pain 
was  forgotten,  the  multitude  before  him  faded 
from  view.  In  imagination  he  was  once  more 
in  Nazareth,  in  the  quiet  home  in  the  green 
valley,  surrounded  by  the  white  hills.  He  was 
a  child  again  with  his  mother's  hand  upon  his 
head.  Then  the  obliterated  years  rushed 
back.  Consciousness  of  his  present  situation 
returned,  but  recollection  had  performed  its 
kindly  ministry.  The  promised  light  had 
shone  at  eventide,  and  the  last  moments  were 
peaceful.  He  commended  his  mother  to  the 
care  of  his  youngest  and  best-beloved  disciple. 
With  deep  joy  he  received  the  inward  assurance 
that  his  work  was  finished  and  permanent, 
and,  like  Paul,  no  longer  counting  his  life 
dear  unto  himself,  he  passed  peacefully  away 
with  the  words,  "Father,  into  thy  hands  I 
commend  my  spirit."  The  noblest  human 
life  was  crowned  by  the  most  patiently  heroic 
death. 

Imagination  has  been  busy  with  the  death  as 
well  as  with  the  birth  of  Christ.  An  early  legend 
incorporated  into  the  gospels  of  Matthew, 
Mark,  and  Luke  says  that  there  was  darkness 
at  midday  for  three  hours.     The  tradition  is 


2o6   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

akin  to  Milton's  fancy,  that  when  Adam  ate 
the  forbidden  fruit, 

"Earth  trembled  ....  and  Nature  gave  a  groan, 
Sky  lower' d,  and  muttering  thunder,  some  sad  drops 
Wept  at  completing  of  the  mortal  sin 
Original." 

Other  early  legends  say  that  many  of  the 
dead  arose,  and  that  the  veil  of  the  temple  was 
rent  in  twain,  God  thus  signifying  that  the 
Holy  of  Holies,  into  which  only  the  High 
Priest  had  been  allowed  to  enter,  was  now  open 
to  all,  and  that  Judaism  having  fulfilled  its 
mission  was  now  abolish'ed,  being  merged  into 
Christianity  as  the  glory  of  the  morning  star 
fades  at  the  rising  of  the  sun. 

Another  Christian  legend  relates  that  all  the 
gods  of  the  heathen  fled  from  earth  vanquished 
and  terror-stricken  at" the  moment  that  Jesus 
exultingly  said,  "It  is  finished." 

But  to  the  ordinary  observer  everything  re- 
mained as  it  had  been  before.  Nature  con- 
tinued her  majestic  course  without  a  tremor  or 
a  shadow  of  change.  Even  the  political  and 
ecclesiastical  worlds  went  on  without  the 
slightest  apparent  modification.  The  smoke 
of  the  morning  and  evening  sacrifices  still 
ascended.  The  pomp  of  the  temple  service 
was    undiminished.      The   golden    bells    still 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  207 

tinkled  and  the  pomegranates  of  blue  and  pur- 
ple and  scarlet  still  gave  "glory  and  beauty" 
to  the  robe  of  the  High  Priest  as  he  walked  in 
full-blown  pride,  just  as  though  he  had  in  no 
way  sullied  the  motto,  "Holiness  to  the  Lord," 
which  he  wore  engraven  in  gold  upon  his 
breast. 

The  great  choir  of  Levites  sang  as  before, 
Who  shall  ascend  into  the  hill  of  the  Lord,  or 
who  shall  stand  in  his  holy  place?  In  glo- 
rious response  the  antiphony  rang  out.  He  that 
hath  clean  hands  and  a  pure  heart,  and  few 
noted  that  it  was  but  empty  sound  and  fewer 
still  foreboded  that  those  mighty  chants  were 
soon  to  cease  and  that  the  great  temple  itself 
ere  a  generation  had  passed  would  be  thrown 
down,  and  that  no  long  time  thereafter  the 
ground  on  which  it  had  stood  would  be  fur- 
rowed by  the  plowshare. 

The  scepter  of  Rome  was  not  broken.  The 
rule  of  Pilate  was  not  disturbed.  All  was  as 
though  nothing  of  importance  had  happened. 
The  incident  was  ended  and  everything  would 
soon  settle  down  into  the  old  routine.  In  spite 
of  the  impotent  efforts  of  a  few  foolish  dis- 
ciples who  still  revered  his  memory,  the  cruci- 
fied blasphemer  would  soon  be  forgotten.  So 
fancied  Scribe  and  Pharisee,  Roman  governor 


2o8   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

and  Jewish  High  Priest.  O  shortsightedness 
of  men!  So  sceptics  and  worldlings  mistook 
then,  so  sceptics  and  worldlings  mistake  now. 
"The  kingdom  of  God  cometh  not  with  obser- 
vation," but  nevertheless  it  comes  with  resist- 
less power.  Jesus  triumphed  in  defeat.  He 
lives  by  his  death. 

That  death  did  all  that  the  poets  have  de- 
clared. It  abolished  the  sacrifices  of  Judaism. 
It  overthrew,  the  philosophies  of  Greece.  It 
conquered  the  armies  of  Rome.  It  dethroned 
and  banished  the  gods  of  Olympus.  Not  by 
any  magic  but  by  the  omnipotence  of  faith, 
love  and  truth.  The  death  of  Jesus  confirmed 
and  sealed  the  sincerity  of  his  life  and  teach- 
ings. One  who  will  not  sacrifice  wealth  or 
popularity  to  his  view  of  truth  and  right  has 
an  opinion  but  not  a  conviction,  one  who  will 
not  sacrifice  life  itself  rather  than  apostatize 
has  an  inclination  but  not  love,  a  conjecture  but 
not  faith.  Beautiful  as  are  the  beatitudes  and 
parables,  wonderful  as  was  the  eloquence,  and 
winning  and  strong  as  was  the  personality  of 
Jesus,  if  to  save  his  life  he  had  abjured  his 
teachings  or  consented  to  remain  silent  about 
them,  instead  of  becoming  the  founder  of  a 
religion  obviously  destined,  in  its  ethical 
essence,  to  become  world-wide,  he  would  have 


THE   CRUCIFIXION  209 

had  a  place  only  among  the  poets  and  proph- 
ets, the  men  who  hope  and  dream  and  long, 
and  not  among  the  more  commanding  gen- 
iuses who  act  and  cause.  We  are  saved  by  his 
death.  It  was  a  holy  and  wise  spirit  that 
guided  the  church  to  preach  "Christ  crucified" 
as  "the  power  of  God  unto  salvation." 

As  a  straw  shows  which  way  the  wind  blows, 
so  an  external  change  brought  about  by  the 
death  of  Christ  will  show  something  of  the 
nature  and  force  of  the  inward  revolution 
caused  by  it.  Crucifixion  had  for  generations 
been  looked  upon  as  the  most  ignominious  of 
deaths.  It  was  reserved  for  the  vilest  crim- 
inals and  slaves.  Roman  law  protected  even 
the  humblest  Roman  citizen  against  it.  Jewish 
law  accounted ,"  the  man  that  was  hanged  or 
crucified  as  accursed  of  God.  The  cross  was 
once  a  symbol  as  repulsive  in  all  its  associa- 
tions as  the  gallows  now  is.  But  Jesus  has 
ennobled  it,  so  that  now  it  is  the  endeared 
emblem  of  every  thing  most  sacred,  humane 
and  beautiful.  It  crowns  the  spires  of  the 
cathedrals  and  churches  that  are  the  miracles 
of  medieval  and  modern  architecture.  It  is 
woven  in  silk,  it  is  stamped  on  iron,  it  is 
carved  in  stone,  it  is  set  in  costly  gems.  It  is 
broadened  or  tapered,  it  is  rounded  or  pointed 


2IO   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

into  every  conceivable  modification  of  its  orig- 
inal form.  It  blazes  in  diamonds  upon  the 
breast  of  beauty,  it  streams  upon  the  banners 
of  illustrious  nations;  above  all  in  the  red 
color  with  which  the  cross  of  Christ  was  stained 
by  his  precious  blood,  it  is  the  sign  of  a  lov- 
ing kindness  in  war  that  makes  no  distinction 
of  friend  and  enemy  but  seeks  only  to  lessen 
human  suffering;  and  in  the  nature  of  the  case 
the  red  cross  and  the  spirit  which  it  represents 
will  eventually  put  an  end  to  war  altogether, 
for  no  nation,  no  man,  no  brute  even,  can  long 
resist  the  force  of  genuine  kindness.  Science, 
logic  and  wit  have  effectually  and  forever  dis- 
credited a  great  mass  of  Jewish  and  Christian 
legends  and  fancies,  but  there  is  no  weapon  of 
science,  of  argument,  or  of  ridicule  that  has 
any  power  against  justice  and  mercy.  Theol- 
ogies, symbols  and  ceremonies,  products  of 
temporary  needs  and  imperfect  knowledge, 
come  in  and  go  out,  but  faith,  hope  and  charity 
abide  forever,  and  will  at  last  win  the  loyalty 
of  every  human  heart. 


CHAPTER   XXIV 

THE    DESCENT    INTO    HELL 

We  live  almost  as  much  in  our  memories  and 
our  hopes  as  in  our  actual  experiences.  The 
fear  of  hell  is  a  dread  shadow  upon  the  lives  of 
many  persons;  the  hope  of  heaven  is  a  radiant 
glory,  an  abounding  joy  in  the  lives  of  many 
others.  Yet  we  have  no  definite  knowledge 
in  regard  to  the  future  life.  There  are,  how- 
ever, some  suggestive  texts  in  the  Bible,  there 
are  phrases,  pictures,  and  parables,  that  have 
most  powerfully  affected  the  imagination  of 
men,  and  on  a  slender  basis  of  figurative  lan- 
guage awful  doctrines  of  eternal  punishment  in 
a  hell  of  fire  have  been  constructed.  In  what 
is  called  the  Apostles'  Creed,  it  is  said  of 
Jesus,  "He  descended  into  Hell,"  and  in  the 
Middle  Ages  when  every  event  in  the  life  of  our 
Lord  was  embellished  to  the  utmost  alike  by 
the  theologians,  the  poets,  and  the  painters,  a 
favorite  theme  for  sermon,  poem,  and  picture 
was  Christ's  descent  into  the  pit  and  his 
triumph  over  Satan  even  in  the  very  seat  and 
center  of  the  Evil  One's  power.      All  words 


212      THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

are  defined  by  their  connection,  and  in  all 
probability  the  meaning  of  the  word  "hell"  in 
the  phrase  in  the  creed  is  the  grave;  but  Chris- 
tian love  and  enthusiasm  were  not  satisfied 
with  this  tame  rendering.  It  seems  unfitting 
that  the  great  Conqueror  of  Death  and  Satan 
should  lie  helpless  in  the  grave  for  three  days, 
and  instead  of  so  doing  legend  represents  him 
as  using  these  three  days  to  proclaim  the  gos- 
pel to  all  souls  who  had  died  before  his  com- 
ing to  earth  in  the  flesh.  In  aid  of  this 
interpretation  we  are  referred  to  a  passage  in 
the  first  epistle  of  Peter,  which  says  that  Jesus 
by  the  spirit  preached  to  the  spirits  in  prison, 
which  some  time  were  disobedient  (i  Pet. 
3:  18,  19,  20).  The  connection  shows  pretty 
clearly  that  the  meaning  is  that  Noah  himself 
preached  to  his  contemporaries  in  much  the 
same  way  as  Jesus  had  warned  the  inhabitants 
of  Jerusalem,  but  mysticism  dislikes  simple 
explanations.  In  Ephesians  it  is  said  that 
Jesus,  "when  he  ascended  up  on  high,  led 
captivity  captive"  (Eph.  4:  8).  And  so  from 
these  and  other  vague  expressions  it  is  inferred 
that  Jesus  forced  an  entrance  into  the  strong- 
hold of  Satan,  and  that  he  inflicted  new  and 
terrible  punishments  upon  the  arch-enemy  and 
his  rebellious  followers.     He  then  proclaimed 


THE  DESCENT  INTO  HELL       213 

a  general  amnesty  to  all  penitent  men  and 
women,  and  ascended  into  heaven  attended  by 
thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of  those  who 
accepted  his  mercy. 

By  those  who  press  the  doctrine  of  the  divine 
sovereignty  to  an  unwarrantable  limit,  God  has 
been  represented  as  freely  electing  some  to 
everlasting  happiness  in  heaven  and  irrevocably 
reprobating  some  to  everlasting  misery  in  hell. 
This  doctrine  of  election  received  for  English 
people  its  most  formal  and  authoritative  ex- 
pression in  the  Westminster  Confession,  framed 
in  1646.  A  few  years  afterwards  a  New  Eng- 
land clergyman,  Michael  Wigglesworth,  wrote 
a  long  poem  called  ''The  Day  of  Doomy  The 
book,  it  may  be  remarked,  was  approved  by 
the  churches,  children  were  required  to  com- 
mit it  to  memory,  and  it  had  a  very  wide  circu- 
lation. It  represents  Christ  as  passing 
judgment  upon  several  classes  of  persons. 
When  "reprobate  infants"  are  reached  the 
poet  says: 

"Then  to  the  bar,  all  they  drew  near 
Who  died  in  infancy, 
And  never  had,  or  good  or  bad , 
Effected  personally. ' ' 

In  vain  they  plead  that  they  were  not  respon- 
sible for  Adam's  sin.     They  are  told  that  Adam 


214      THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

was  their  representative,  and  that  if  he  had 
stood  they  would  gladly  have  profited  by  his 
virtue,  and  that  therefore,  as  he  fell,  they  are 
justly  punished  for  his  sin.  They  are  then 
consigned  to  hell  with  the  words: 

'  'You  sinners  are ;  and  such  a  share 
As  sinners  may  expect, 
Such  you  shall  have,  for  I  do  save 
None  but  mine  own  elect." 

Surely  this  is  blasphemy  against  God,  against 
the  compassionate  Son  of  Man,  against 
humanity  and  against  every  principle  of  jus- 
tice and  mercy.  Such  vengeance  upon  the 
worst  of  sinners  would  be  worse  than  inhuman, 
worse  than  devilish.  Strange  that  good  men 
should  ever  have  thought  that  they  were  doing 
God  service  in  ascribing  such  an  atrocious 
character  to  him,  and  strange  indeed  that 
Jesus,  who  said,  "Suffer  little  children  to  come 
unto  me,  and  forbid  them  not,  for  of  such  is 
the  kingdom  of  God,"  and  who  taught  men  to 
love  their  enemies  and  to  forgive  the  trespasses 
of  a  brother  seventy  times  seven,  should  by 
any  possible  process  have  been  transformed 
into  a  Ruler  so  stern  and  pitiless. 

When  King  Lear  was  turned  from  the  inhos- 
pitable door  by  two  unnatural  daughters  and 
exposed  to  the  fury  of   the  storm,   the   filial 


THE  DESCENT  INTO  HELL       215 

Cordelia,  fondling  her  rescued  father,  protested 
against  the  outrage  done  to  the  aged  man  in 
the  words: 

"Had  you  not  been  their  father,  these  white  flakes 
Had  challenged  pity  of  them.     Was  this  a  face 
To  be  opposed  against  the  warring  winds? 
To  stand  against  the  deep  dread-bolted  thunder? 
.     .     .     Mine  enemy's  dog 

Though  he  had  bit  me,  should  have  stood  that  night 
Against  my  fire." 

The  absolute  sovereignty  of  God  is  a  rational 
and,  I  think,  a  true  conception.  To  create  is 
a  greater  work  than  to  control,  and  it  is  in  the 
highest  degree  absurd  to  imagine  that  the  uni- 
verse or  any  being  in  it  can  in  any  way  resist 
or  evade  the  power  of  its  omniscient  and 
omnipotent  Creator.  Who  can  "run  upon  the 
thick  bosses  of  his  buckler"?  The  sovereignty 
of  God  is  absolute.  But  the  justice  and  mercy 
of  God  are  absolute  also.  It  is  impossible  by 
his  very  nature  for  God  to  sin.  When  God 
arbitrarily  appoints  one  man  to  honor  and  one 
to  dishonor,  he  simply  gives  one  more  and  the 
other  less  of  his  bounty  for  the  time  being,  and 
no  one  can  know  that  when  the  cycle  of  life  is 
complete  the  good  of  each  will  not  be  the 
same.  Even  now,  it  is  very  hard  for  us  to  be 
sure  whose  lot  in  life  is  the  most  desirable. 


»i6      THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

Happiness  is  as  often  found  in  the  cottage  as 
in  the  palace.  God's  bounties  are  pretty 
evenly  distributed  through  his  world. 

But  if  it  be  not  so — if  now  and  through  all 
eternity,  God  gives  some  of  his  creatures 
greater  power  and  greater  gifts  than  he  gives 
to  other  created  beings,  who  shall  say  that  he 
is  unjust?  Shall  he  not  do  what  he  will  with 
his  own?  What  each  receives  is  a  free  and 
good  gift  for  which  the  Giver  should  be 
thanked.  "The  Lord  is  good  to  all,  and  his 
tender  mercies  are  over  all  his  works." 

The  most  detailed  picture  of  hell  in  the  gos- 
pels is  in  the  story  of  Dives  and  Lazarus,  but 
that  account  is  not  original  with  Jesus.  He 
simply  used  a  familiar  Talmudic  story  in  sup- 
port of  his  favorite  doctrine  that  men  are 
brothers  and  responsible  for  each  other's  wel- 
fare and  especially  that  the  rich  have  a  duty 
toward  the  poor.  In  the  presence  of  cruelty, 
hypocrisy,  or  heartless  indifference,  Jesus  was 
always  vehement. 

Lust,  gluttony,  avarice,  anger,  and  envy 
create  hells  in  both  body  and  mind.  There  is 
a  hell  of  corrupted  blood,  of  palsied  limbs,  of 
trembling  nerves,  a  hell  of  pain  and  weariness 
and  self-contempt,  a  hell  of  remorse  and  mad- 
ness unto  which  sin  brings  its  victims.     Against 


THE  DESCENT  INTO  HELL       217 

this  the  pulpit  should  warn  men  with  earnest, 
tender,  painstaking,  and  persistent  solicitude. 
Let  the  chart  of  life  be  true.  Warn  men 
against  real  dangers  and  hoist  no  false  signals 
against  metaphorical  and  imaginary  perils. 

There  is  a  hell,  the  hell  of  an  evil  conscience, 
but  Jesus,  though  he  has  delivered  many  from 
it,  never  descended  into  it.  His  body  de- 
scended into  the  tomb  and  returned  to  the 
dust  from  which  it  was  created,  and  his  im- 
mortal spirit  entered  into  his  everlasting  life 
and  has  uplifted,  and  will  continue  to  uplift, 
countless  others  to  sit  with  him  in  eternal  joy 
and  glory  at  the  right  hand  of  God. 


CHAPTER  XXV 


THE    RESURRECTION 


The  belief  in  life  after  death  is  primitive  and 
universal.  It  is  asserted  by  consciousness  and 
is  corroborated  by  many  phenomena.  The 
savage  Indian  had  his  happy  hunting  grounds, 
and  the  polished  Greek  his  Elysium,  the  Jew, 
with  his  Asiatic  love  of  pomp,  had  his  celestial 
city  with  gates  of  pearl  and  streets  of  gold. 
All  these  are  pictures  of  the  imagination  as  it 
plays  around  the  deep  and  ineradicable  intui- 
tion that  man  is  a  spirit  and  that  his  spirit  sur- 
vives the  destruction  of  his  body. 

Modern  science  teaches  us  that  matter,  how- 
ever its  form  may  be  changed,  is  indestructible, 
and  that  heat  may  be  converted  into  motion  or 
into  light,  but  that  amid  all  its  transformations 
its  energy  remains  constant.  The  laws  of  the 
conservation  of  energy  and  the  indestructi- 
bility of  matter  have  been  more  carefully 
formulated  and  more  absolutely  demonstrated 
in  recent  years,  but  the  essential  facts  have 
been  known  and  poetically  expressed  by  all 
nations  from  the  earliest  times.  The  succes- 
218 


THE  RESURRECTION  219 

sive  changes  of  water  to  cloud,  cloud  to  snow, 
and  snow  back  to  water,  the  growth,  decay, 
and  renewed  growth  of  vegetation,  teach  man 
by  analogy  that  all  death  is  only  external  and 
apparent  The  spring,  when  the  apparently- 
dead  earth  wakes  to  new  life,  when  the  ap- 
parently-dead root  and  trunk  and  branch  send 
forth  new  shoots  and  buds  and  blossoms,  is  the 
great  teacher  of  the  doctrine  of  a  resurrection. 
But,  it  may  be  urged,  the  longest-lived  tree  at 
last  dies  and  returns  its  elements  to  the  soil, 
and  therefore  nature  teaches  no  individual 
resurrection  but  only  the  continuance  of  the 
whole  and  an  endless  succession  of  new  com- 
binations. Why  should  God  develop  in  man 
an  individuality  made  of  memory,  faith,  hope 
and  love,  and  then  destroy  it?  Man  is  made  in 
God's  image,  and  man  does  not  wantonly 
destroy  his  most  costly  and  wonderful  crea- 
tions. It  is  inconceivable  that  God  should  de- 
velop through  youth,  manhood  and  age  the 
brain  and  heart  of  a  Moses  or  a  Paul,  and  then 
blot  them  utterly  out  of  existence! 

The  facts  and  analogies  hitherto  spoken  of 
appeal  strongly  to  almost  every  one,  but  there 
is  another  class  of  less  common  facts  which 
have  also  been  influential  in  forming  the  belief 
of  men  in  the  resurrection.     Seeing  is  believ- 


aao   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

ing,  and  undoubtedly  many  persons  have  seen 
the  spirits  of  departed  relatives  and  friends. 
Ballads  and  folk-lore  are  full  of  these  ghost 
stories.  The  wife  sees  the  dead  husband;  the 
husband,  the  dead  wife;  the  parent,  the  child; 
and  the  child,  the  parent.  The  perjured  lover 
is  haunted  by  the  ghost  of  the  injured  maid, 
and  the  grave  yawns  to  give  back  the  body  of 
the  murdered  man  to  the  terrified  gaze  of  his 
assassin. 

The  fact  is  that  whenever  the  imagination 
and  emotions  are  very  strongly  excited,  they 
supersede  or  overpower  the  senses.  When  a 
bright  light  is  suddenly  extinguished  its  ap- 
pearance lingers  for  a  moment  on  the  retina, 
and  when  a  figure  that  has  strongly  impressed 
the  mind  is  withdrawn  it  still  seems  present. 
The  gospel  account  of  the  resurrection  is  not 
an  isolated  or  fictitious  tale,  however  its  details 
may  have  been  distorted  or  embellished,  but 
agrees  with  all  the  analogies  of  nature  as 
recorded  in  the  literature  of  every  nation  and 
every  age. 

The  resurrection  of  Jesus  is  a  great  subjective 
fact.  It  would  have  been  a  miracle  of  miracles 
if  so  strong  and  wonderful  a  personality  had 
vanished  at  once  from  the  minds  of  men. 
Pilate's  wife  had  in  all  probability  seen  him 


THE  RESURRECTION  2ai 

but  once,  yet  a  single  glance  at  that  pure  and 
majestic  face  haunted  her  dreams  and  made 
her  warn  her  husband  not  to  do  him  wrong.  If 
Jesus  appeared  in  vision  to  Pilate's  wife,  to 
whom  he  had  never  done  a  deed,  or  even 
spoken  a  word,  of  kindness,  how  should  he  not 
appear  to  Mary  Magdalen,  whom  he  had  re- 
stored to  womanhood  and  to  whom  he  had 
spoken  words  of  grace  and  sympathy  such  as 
no  woman  ever  forgets?  If  the  sorrowing  face 
of  Jesus  haunted  the  dreams  of  Pilate's  wife, 
an  utter  stranger,  on  whom  Jesus  had  not  cast 
a  glance  of  even  passing  interest,  how  should 
not  the  image  of  that  face  haunt  Peter,  on 
whom  the  Lord  had  turned  a  reproachful  look 
that  made  him  weep  bitterly?  Many  a  time 
that  paroxysm  of  grief  was  renewed,  and  many 
a  time  the  face  of  Jesus  stood  out  with  a  phys- 
ical distinctness  as  events  recalled  to  Peter  the 
hour  of  his  apostasy.  The  whole  scene  was 
ineffaceably  burned  into  his  memory.  If  Jesus 
appeared  in  mental  vision  to  a  woman  who  had 
seen  him  but  once,  would  he  not  appear  to 
disciples  who  had  accompanied  him  for  months 
and  years,  and  to  whom  he  had  spoken  such 
words  as  no  other  man  ever  spoke,  and  in  whom 
he  had  raised  hopes  more  sublime  and  wonder- 
ful than  ever  before  filled  the  heart  of  man? 


222   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

The  belief  in  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  inevi- 
tably follows  his  life.  If  there  had  been  no 
story  of  the  resurrection,  the  whole  gospel 
narrative  would  seem  incredible,  dispropor- 
tioned  and  incomplete,  like  a  building  without 
its  roof  and  capstone. 

That  the  resurrection  was  in  the  hearts  and 
not  in  the  eyes  of  his  disciples  does  not  make 
it  less  real  or  important  but  more  so.  The 
spirit  is  more  real  than  the  body,  and  a  resur- 
rection of  Jesus  in  the  souls  of  his  disciples 
gives  a  far  stronger  attestation  to  his  character 
than  any  merely  physical  resurrection  could 
have  done.  That  it  was  subjective  and  not 
objective  is  proved  by  the  general  fact  that 
spirit  is  invisible  and  that  all  other  stories  of 
the  appearance  of  the  spirits  of  the  dead  have 
been  psychologically  explained.  The  partic- 
ulars given  in  the  gospels  sufficiently  show  that 
the  resurrection  was  mental  and  not  physical. 
The  appearance  of  angels,  like  that  of  ghosts, 
always  corresponds  to  the  preconceptions  of 
the  observer,  and  an  apparition  of  an  angel 
"with  a  countenance  like  lightning  and  raiment 
white  as  snow"  is  obviously  a  vision  of  the 
mind  and  not  of  the  eye.  The  two  disciples 
who  thought  that  Jesus  had  talked  with  them 
on  the  way  to  Emmaus  did  not  know  him  for  a 


THE  RESURRECTION  223 

long  time,  which  was  impossible  if  the  figure 
had  really  been  that  of  Jesus  in  flesh  and 
blood.  Perhaps  they  talked  with  a  stranger, 
and  as  they  and  he  dwelt  upon  the  life  of  Jesus 
their  hearts  burned  within  them,  and  when 
they  sat  down  to  their  disconsolate  evening 
meal  they  involuntarily  contrasted  it  with  the 
supper  three  days  before,  when  the  Master  was 
alive  and  the  twelve  disciples,  now  a  broken 
band,  were  apparently  united  in  loyalty  and 
love.  Three  short  days  only  had  passed,  and 
of  that  band  whose  feet  Jesus  had  washed,  and 
to  whom  in  affectionate  and  solemn  words  he 
had  committed  the  perpetuation  of  his  work, 
one  had  proved  a  traitor  and  was  perhaps 
already  known  as  a  suicide,  another  was  a  con- 
science-stricken penitent,  because  although 
forewarned,  he  had  denied  with  blasphemies 
the  Lord  he  had  promised  to  follow  to  the 
death,  and  all  the  rest  were  suffering  pangs  of 
remorse  only  less  keen,  because  they  too,  had 
all  forsaken  him  and  fled.  As  they  heard 
again  the  familiar  formula  which  a  pious  Jew 
uttered  before  beginning  his  evening  meal,  the 
vision  of  Jesus  passed  before  them,  but  as  their 
eyes  opened  it  vanished,  like  a  weary  soldier's 
dream  of  home  and  peace. 

The  account  of  the  appearance  of  Jesus  to 


224   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

two  disciples  on  the  way  to  Emmaus  at  evening 
on  the  third  day  after  his  crucifixion  is  found 
in  the  gospel  of  Luke,  but  the  gospel  of  John 
narrates  that  on  the  same  third  day,  at  the 
same  evening  hour,  Jesus  appeared  to  the  dis- 
ciples, except  Thomas,  at  Jerusalem.  That 
this  vision  also  was  mental  is  evident  from  the 
fact  that  a  body  could  not  be  present  in  two 
places  at  the  same  time,  and  could  not,  as  the ' 
account  declares,  pass  through  a  closed  door. 
A  week  later  the  disciples  were  again  assembled 
and  Thomas  with  them.  Again  it  is  expressly 
said  that  "the  doors  being  shut,  Jesus  came 
and  stood  in  the  midst,"  and  convinced  even 
the  unimaginative  and  despondent  Thomas  that 
he  had  risen.  Thomas  declared  that  unless  he 
should  put  his  fingers  into  the  print  of  the  nails 
and  thrust  his  hands  into  the  wounded  side  of 
Jesus  he  would  not  believe,  yet  Thomas  never 
made  the  attempt,  but  was  caught  away  in  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  others,  saw  with  their  eyes, 
heard  with  their  ears,  and  believed  with  their 
belief.  How  could  he  have  put  his  fingers  into 
the  print  of  nails  in  the  hands  of  an  immaterial 
body  that  had  just  passed  through  a  closed 
door? 

The  gospel  of  Matthew  says  nothing  about 
the    appearance  to  the  two  disciples  at  Em- 


THE  RESURRECTION  225 

maus,  or  to  Peter,  or  to  Thomas,  but  says  that 
"the  eleven  disciples  went  into  Galilee  to  a 
mountain  where  Jesus  had  appointed  them. 
And  when  they  saw  him  they  worshiped  him; 
but,"  the  report  significantly  adds,  "some 
doubted."  The  plain  appearance  of  a  man  in 
the  body  convinces  the  credulous  and  incredu- 
lous alike,  and  the  doubt  of  some  of  the  eleven 
disciples  can  only  be  explained  as  the  struggle 
we  all  have,  to  maintain  faith  in  the  immor- 
tality of  the  spirit  in  hours  of  bereavement  and 
sorrow. 

Though  in  visions  of  the  risen  Jesus  the 
senses  were  superseded,  or,  if  one  chooses  to 
call  it  so,  deceived,  the  heart  was  not  deceived. 
Faith  and  hope  are  more  real  and  trustworthy 
than  flesh  and  blood  or  earth  and  sea.  The 
body  and  the  earth  shall  perish,  they  are  but 
the  vesture  of  the  spirit,  and  shall  wax  old  and 
be  changed,  but  the  spirit  of  man,  like  the 
spirit  of  God,  is  eternal.  The  disciples  saw 
Jesus  rise  from  the  dead  in  spirit  and  in  truth, 
and  the  church  sees,  and  will  forever  see,  that 
his  spirit  lives  and  reigns,  and  that  death  had 
no  power  over  him. 

It  is  perhaps  a  sufficient  comment  upon  the 
last  two  chapters  of  John  to  say  that,  like  the 
story  of  the  resurrection  of  Lazarus,  they  seem 


226      THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

to  illustrate  the  late  and  legendary  character 
of  many  of  the  incidents  recorded  in  the  fourth 
gospel.  If  the  story  of  the  resurrection  of 
Lazarus  were  true,  it  is  difificult  to  conceive 
how  it  should  have  been  omitted  from  the 
earlier-written  gospels  of  Matthew,  Mark,  and 
Luke,  and  be  found  only  in  John.  In  the  same 
way,  if  the  miraculous  draught  of  fishes  and 
the  conversation  with  Peter  reported  in  the 
twenty  first  chapter  of  John,  took  place,  as  is 
there  asserted,  in  the  presence  of  seven  dis- 
ciples, it  is  incredible  that  Matthew,  Mark  and 
Luke  should  never  have  heard  of  it,  or,  having 
heard  of  it,  should  have  omitted  it,  especially 
as  the  accounts  of  the  resurrection  in  Matthew 
and  Mark  are  so  brief. 

There  is  one  other  late  report,  that  in  Paul's 
first  epistle  to  the  Corinthians.  Paul  there 
enumerates  the  appearances  of  Jesus,  and  in- 
cludes with  them,  as  of  the  same  class,  the 
vision  of  Jesus  which  he  himself  had  seen  while 
on  the  way  to  Damascus,  when  "a  light  from 
heaven  shined  round  about  him,"  and  a  voice 
from  heaven  said  unto  him,  "I  am  Jesus  whom 
thou  persecutest;  it  is  hard  for  thee  to  kick 
against  the  pricks."  All  violence  provokes 
reaction.  Paul  had  been  making  "havoc  of  the 
dhurch,  entering  into  every  house,  and  haling 


THE  RESURRECTION  227 

men  and  women  and  committing  them  to 
prison."  Paul  was  naturally  an  intelligent  and 
humane  man,  but  he  was  also  a  Hebrew  of  the 
Hebrews,  and  it  was  zeal  for  the  religion  of  his 
fathers  which  led  him  to  attempt  to  suppress  a 
band  of  fanatics  who  seemed  to  him  to  be 
assailing  everything  sacred  and  precious  to 
Israel.  He  had  for  them  a  vehement  abhorrence 
like  that  of  modern  society  against  the  anarch- 
ists and  nihilists.  But  a  humane  and  intelli- 
gent man  cannot  long  be  engaged  in  imprison- 
ing and  putting  to  death  even  the  most  vicious 
without  much  pain  to  himself  and  without 
being  stirred  to  wonder  whether  there  is  not 
some  great  wrong  or  error  against  which  these 
people  in  their  blind  and  blundering  way  are 
contending. 

Doubtless  many  of  the  early  Christians  were 
drawn  from  the  vicious  classes,  the  "publicans 
and  sinners";  and  the  Pharisaic  Paul  may  have 
been  confirmed  in  his  suspicions  and  dislikes 
by  the  conduct  and  appearance  of  some  of  his 
victims,  but  he  must  often  have  seen  with  sur- 
prise that  the  persons  whom  he  was  dragging  to 
prison  or  death  seemed  to  be  more  than  ordi- 
narily intelligent  and  virtuous  people,  and, 
above  all,  so  acute  and  thoughtful  a  mind  as 
Paul's  must  have  wondered  what  was  the  secret 


228   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

of  the  peace  and  joy  these  people  possessed, 
to  which  his  own  proud  and  passionate 
heart  was  a  stranger.  He  was  present  at  the 
execution  of  Stephen,  and  he  never  forgot  the 
words  and  the  look  of  that  heroic  young 
martyr.  Ever  afterward,  in  the  forefront  of  his 
remorse  for  sin,  was  his  participation  in  the 
"blood  of  thy  martyr  Stephen."  He  was  con- 
victed as  he  looked  at  Stephen  and  heard  him 
speak,  but  pride  held  him  fast.  Could  he,  a 
scholar  and  an  officer,  a  man  specially  trained 
for,  and  long  identified  with,  the  profession  of 
the  canon  law,  acknowledge  that  his  learning 
was  worthless  and  his  whole  course  of  life  mis- 
taken? It  is  a  hard  thing  to  do,  and  few  men 
in  Paul's  position  ever  do  it.  Paul  did  not  at 
first.  He  stifled  his  convictions  and  redoubled 
the  energy  of  his  persecutions,  but  the  sight  of 
every  other  patient  and  cheerful  Christian 
sufferer  recalled  the  face  of  the  young  saint 
who  as  he  was  being  examined  said,  "I  see  the 
heavens  opened  and  the  Son  of  Man  standing 
on  the  right  hand  of  God,"  and  whose  last 
prayer  before  he  "fell  asleep"  was,  "Lord 
Jesus,  receive  my  spirit." 

As  Paul  in  the  enforced  leisure  of  the  long 
journey  to  Damascus  brooded  over  the  testi- 
mony of  Christian  after  Christian,  their  frag- 


THE  RESURRECTION  229 

mentary  words  and  acts  grew  into' unity  and 
coherence,  the  multiplied  instances  of  faith 
piled  up  into  a  mountain  of  evidence,  and  Paul 
felt  himself  at  last  obliged  to  confess  that  he 
was  fighting  against  a  conviction  clearer  and 
stronger  than  his  own.  His  belief  was  school- 
taught  and  complex,  theirs  was  a  fresh  revela- 
tion from  God,  accepted  by  simple  faith.  His 
cold  and  intellectual  belief  left  the  heart  still 
weary  and  unsatisfied,  their  faith  had  given 
them  the  "peace  of  God  which  passeth  all 
understanding."  Paul's  agony  increased  from 
day  to  day  till  the  ever-rising  tide  of  his  emo- 
tions at  last  swept  away  the  barriers  of  educa- 
tion and  led  him  to  accept  the  new  facts.  He 
heard  the  voice  of  Jesus  saying  to  him,  "Saul, 
Saul,  why  persecutest  thou  me?"  He  saw 
Jesus,  as  Stephen  had  seen  him,  standing  at 
God's  right  hand.  With  God  all  things  are 
possible.  God  may  have  aqtually  stationed 
himself  in  human  form,  and  with  Jesus  at  his 
side  within  the  range  of  the  vision  first  of 
Stephen  and  subsequently  of  Paul;  but  surely 
to  tbe  devout  and  studious  mind  it  seems  more 
consistent  with  the  divine  majesty  and  the 
usual  methods  of  communicating  truth  to  men 
to  say  that  the  visions  of  Stephen  and  Paul 
were  purely  mental. 


230   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

In  the  case  of  Paul  this  is  further  confirmed 
by  the  fact  that  on  another  occasion  he  "was 
caught  up  into  the  third  heaven  and  heard 
words  which  it  was  not  lawful  for  him  to 
repeat,"  but  could  not  tell  whether  he  was  in 
the  body  or  not.  In  every  great  crisis  of  his 
life,  at  Troas  before  going  into  Macedonia,  on 
shipboard,  and  in  the  prisoner's  dock,  Paul  had 
a  vision;  and  as  Paul  says  of  Jesus  after  his 
crucifixion,  "last  of  all  he  was  seen  of  me 
also,"  it  seems  reasonable  to  believe  that  in 
his  opinion  all  other  manifestations  of  Jesus 
after  death  were  of  the  same  visionary  kind  as 
his  own. 

Moreover,  in  Paul's  view  the  various  visions 
of  Jesus  after  death  were  not  the  main  support 
of  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection.  His  con- 
clusion is,  '^If  the  dead  rise  not,  then  is  Christ 
not  risen."  The  general  law  supports  the  par- 
ticular case,  and  the  particular  case  in  its  turn 
strengthens  the  general  law.  We  believe  in 
the  life  of  the  spirit  after  death,  not  on  the 
slight  and  insuflficient  testimony  of  the  senses, 
but  on  the  strongest  grounds  of  reason  and  the 
deepest  and  truest  intuitions  of  consciousness. 
Visions  are  effects  and  not  causes  of  faith,  as 
certainly  as  shadow  is  the  effect  and  not  the 
cause  of  substance. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

THE    ASCENSION 

Accounts  of  the  ascension  are  found  in  Mark, 
Luke  and  the  Acts.  That  in  Mark  says  simply, 
"He  was  received  up  into  heaven."  Luke 
more  dramatically  says,  "He  led  them  out  as 
far  as  Bethany,  and  he  lifted  up  his  hands  and 
blessed  them.  And  it  came  to  pass  while  he 
blessed  them,  he  was  parted  from  them  and 
carried  up  into  heaven."  The  account  in  the 
Acts  is  much  longer,  and  illustrates  very  well 
the  natural  tendency  to  embellish  a  bald  narra- 
tion with  suitable  details.  He  is  now  received 
by  a  cloud,  and  his  disciples  are  told  that  he 
will  come  again  in  like  manner.  These  ac- 
counts grow  out  of  the  necessities  of  the  case. 
When  it  had  become  the  faith  of  the  church 
that  Jesus  had  appeared  in  the  body  to  his  dis- 
ciples after  death  there  were  only  two  courses 
open,  either  to  say  that  he  was  still  upon  the 
earth  in  the  flesh,  or  that  he  had  left  it  at  a 
certain  time  and  in  a  certain  way.  As  he  soon 
ceased  to  appear  to  the  disciples,  and  had 
»         231 


232   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

never  been  seen  by  the  multitude,  the  natural 
inference  was  drawn  that  he  was  no  longer 
upon  earth.  The  question  then  arose  as  to  the 
length  of  his  stay,  and  the  period  was  naturally 
fixed  at  the  traditional  forty  days.  Moses  was 
forty  days  in  the  mount,  Elijah  forty  days  in 
the  wilderness,  Jesus  himself  was  tempted 
forty  days  in  the  desert,  and  legend  runs  in  the 
groove  of  precedent. 

Popular  opinion  having  settled  it  that  Jesus 
stayed  upon  earth  after  death  only  forty  days, 
the  imagination  craved  some  picture  of  the 
manner  of  his  departure.  There  was  the  vague 
precedent  of  Enoch.  There  was  the  myste- 
rious burial  of  Moses,  there  was  the  fiery 
chariot  of  Elijah.  But  none  of  these  quite 
satisfied  the  conceptions  of  the  church. 
Affection  and  reverence  longed  for  something 
more  than  a  mere  vanishing,  and  to  be  carried 
away  by  storm  and  lightning  like  Elijah,  con- 
sonant as  such  an  ending  was  with  the  career 
of  the  fiery  prophet  of  the  desert,  was  quite 
inconsistent  with  the  life  and  character  of 
Jesus.  He  was  not  a  "son  of  Thunder,"  but 
one  whose  doctrine  "distilled  as  the  dew  and 
as  the  rain  upon  the  mown  grass."  A  summer 
cloud,  emblem  of  purity,  beauty,  and  blessing, 
was  the  appropriate  chariot  for  the  Prince  of 


THE  ASCENSION  233 

Peace  who  came  with  gentle  ministrations  to 
the  poor  and  meek. 

The  conception  that  God  dwells  in  the  sky  is 
derived  from  the  fact  that  the  sun  is  the  source 
of  light  and  heat,  and  gives  life  and  beauty  to 
the  earth.  As  the  sun  is  always  hidden  or 
attended  by  clouds,  so  God  is  represented  as 
dwelling  in  the  clouds  or  as  descending  to 
earth  in  them.  "He  hath  established  his 
throne  in  the  heavens."  "Clouds  and  dark- 
ness are  round  about  him."  In  connection 
with  the  giving  of  the  commandments  to  Moses 
it  is  said,  "The  Lord  descended  in  the  cloud 
and  stood  with  him."  At  the  transfiguration 
it  is  said  that  "a  bright  cloud  overshadowed 
them:  and  behold  a  voice  out  of  the  cloud 
which  said.  This  is  my  beloved  son,  in  whom  I 
am  well  pleased."  In  like  manner  the  writer 
of  the  book  of  Revelation  says,  "I  saw  a 
mighty  angel  come  down  from  heaven,  clothed 
with  a  cloud."  Greek  and  Roman  mythologies 
have  many  similar  instances.  Heroes  are  thus 
invested  with  grace  or  conveyed  from  danger. 

In  the  course  of  time  the  glory  of  the  Son 
was  reflected  on  the  mother,  and  in  conse- 
quence the  death  of  Mary  was  idealized  in  the 
same  manner  as  his.  During  the  reign  of 
Constantine  the  Great,   under  whom,   in  313, 


234  THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

Christianity  became  the  official  religion,  the 
feast  of  the  Assumption  of  Mary  was  cele- 
brated with  great  pomp  in  the  East,  and  in  the 
next  century  the  festival  was  adopted  by  the 
western  church.  In  451  Marcian,  the  relic- 
gathering  emperor,  asked  Bishop  Juvenalis 
whether  the  body  of  Mary  was  still  in  the  grave 
at  Jerusalem  and  was  told  in  reply  that  in 
Palestine  the  universal  tradition  was  that  the 
body  as  well  as  the  soul  of  the  Blessed  Mother 
of  God  had  been  translated  by  angels  into 
heaven.  Special  prayers  were  composed  in 
honor  of  the  event,  it  was  later  formally  incor- 
porated into  the  creed  of  the  church  of  Arme- 
nia, and  it  was  supported  in  controversy  by 
many  ingenious  arguments.  As,  according  to 
Jewish  legend,  Elijah,  the  prophetic  forerun- 
ner of  Jesus,  had  been  carried  to  heaven  in  the 
body,  it  was  thought  fitting  to  award  similar 
honor  to  the  legislative  predecessor  of  Christ, 
and  there  is  still  extant  an  elaborate  Latin 
work  upon  the  Assumption  of  Moses. 

In  the  account  of  the  departure  of  Jesus 
from  the  earth,  as  in  that  of  his  birth,  imagina- 
tion has  played  a  large  part,  but  this  does  not 
derogate  from,  but  adds  to,  his  true  glory,  for 
imagination  loves  especially  to  employ  itself 
about  the  noblest  men  and  the  greatest  truths, 


THE  ASCENSION  235 

as  the  artists  delight  to  work  in  ivory  and  mar- 
ble and  to  encircle  pearls  and  diamonds  with 
gold. 

When  Mark,  borrowing  the  language  of  the 
iioth  Psalm,  says  that  Jesus  sits  "at  the  right 
hand  of  God,"  the  words  are  obviously  a  mere 
figure  expressing  power  and  exaltation,  just  as 
the  language,  "He  shall  cover  thee  with  his 
feathers  and  under  his  wings  shalt  thou  trust" 
expresses  only  the  perfect  security  of  the 
righteous.  God  is  not  a  corporeal  being  with 
hands  and  feet  like  a  man,  but  "God  is  a 
spirit."  Interpreting  the  language  in  its  nat- 
ural signification  that  Jesus  is  to  us  next  to  the 
Father  in  power  and  glory,  it  is  strictly  true. 
We  have  ceased  to  believe  in  Ceres,  the  goddess 
of  earth,  in  Neptune,  the  god  of  the  seas,  in 
Apollo,  the  god  of  the  sun,  and  in  Minerva, 
the  goddess  of  the  air.  Fire,  water,  earth  and 
air  are  now  only  physical  forces  under  the  con- 
trol of  one  omnipotent  God.  Angels  are  rep- 
resented as  singing  and  harping  around  the 
throne,  as  mighty  warriors  victorious  over  all 
rebels  against  God's  power,  and  as  God's  min- 
isters in  all  his  communications  with  man. 
They  heal  the  sick,  they  strengthen  the  faint, 
they  deliver  the  prisoner,  they  guard  the  saint. 
But  the    Christian    imagination,    even    in    the 


236   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

earliest  ages,  exalted  the  Son  far  above  all  the 
hierarchy  of  heaven,  above  all  the  ranks  of 
angels,  archangels,  princedoms,  powers,  vir- 
tues, dominions,  thrones,  cherubs,  and  seraphs, 
into  which,  in  imitation  of  the  gradations  of 
earthly  aristocracy,  theologians  have  classified 
the  attendants  of  the  Lord  Almighty.  But  as 
the  conception  of  the  unity  and  spirituality  of 
God  has  grown,  belief  in  mighty  angelic 
agents  of  his  will  has  declined.  With  every 
advance  of  scientific  knowledge  it  becomes 
harder  to  believe  the  story  of  herald  angels 
singing  to  listening  shepherds,  to  believe  that 
winged  messengers  from  heaven  communicate 
medicinal  powers  to  pools  of  water,  or  open 
prison  doors,  or  walk  unseen  at  man's  side  to 
protect  him  from  danger.  Our  imagination  is 
turned  into  newer  and  nobler  channels.  Angels 
are  disappearing  from  the  earth  as  elves  and 
fairies  have  disappeared,  and  instead  of  their 
graceful  and  capricious  activities  we  have  the 
immediate,  ever-active,  invariable  and  benefi- 
cent power  of  the  Almighty.  Even  the  most 
imaginative  Protestant  Christians  rarely  invoke 
or  expect  the  assistance  of  angels.  So  far  as 
earth  is  concerned,  they  belong  to  a  decaying 
and  almost  extinct  mythology. 

Before  the  rising  sun  of  knowledge  the  clouds 


THE  ASCENSION  237 

of  fancy  have  melted  away,  and  with  wiser  and 
deeper  love  for  men,  our  visions  of  angels  have 
ceased,  yet  the  ascension  of  Jesus  is  more  real 
to-day  than  ever  before.  At  death  he  entered 
into  his  kingdom  and  into  fullness  of  joy;  he 
rose  into  a  higher  life  and  to  a  more  perfect 
knowledge  of  God.  Language  is  at  bottom 
only  a  body  of  metaphors,  and  no  metaphor 
better  expresses  the  truth  than  the  words  of  the 
creed:  "He  sitteth  at  the  right  hand  of  God  in 
glory  everlasting."  He  reigns  in  heaven  over 
countless  "spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect." 
He  reigns  upon  earth  over  a  humanity  that 
under  the  influence  of  his  teaching  and  ex- 
ample is  achieving  its  great  destiny. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

JESUS   AS   A   MAN 

Men's  views  of  Jesus,  like  their  views  of  the 
phenomena  of  nature,  have  passed  through 
various  stages.  To  his  contemporaries  he  was 
a  remarkable  man.  To  some  of  them  he  was 
a  supremely  good  man,  a  prophet  sent  from 
God  and  aided  by  God  in  all  his  works;  to 
others  he  was  a  mistaken  enthusiast;  to  others 
still,  a  base  deceiver  and  blasphemer,  but  to  all 
contemporaries  alike  he  was  a  man. 

Scarcely  had  contemporaries  passed  from 
the  scene  before  the  creative,  idealizing  imag- 
ination of  man  began  to  transform  the  actual 
Jesus  into  a  demi-god.  He  was  represented  as 
of  supernatural  birth,  as  possessing  power  over 
all  the  elements,  all  creatures,  all  diseases,  and 
over  death  itself,  as  the  divinely  appointed 
teacher,  ruler  and  judge  of  men.  This,  the 
gospel  delineation,  is  essentially  the  work  of 
poetic  minds.  It  is  a  concrete  and  beautiful 
creation  of  character  and  work,  such  a  trans- 
formation as  the  historic  King  Arthur  has 
undergone  at  the  hands  of  various  myth-mak- 
338 


JESUS  AS  A  MAN  239 

ers,  until  at  last,  in  Tennyson's  Idylls  of  the 
King  he  is  a  thoroughly  idealized  man  and 
ruler,  and  an  allegorical  conception  of  the  war 
between  Sense  and  Soul. 

The  evangelists  did  not  do  Jesus  justice. 
They  embellished  his  actual  life  with  mythical 
incidents  which  they  supposed  suited  to  his 
character  and  even  necessary  to  the  establish- 
ment of  his  right  to  be  the  Messiah.  They 
intended  to  exalt,  but  they  actually  degraded 
him.  Stories  of  turning  "water  into  wine,"  of 
the  miraculous  multiplication  of  loaves  and 
fishes,  of  walking  upon  the  sea,  are  tawdry  and 
melodramatic  marvels.  They  chill  and 
alienate  us,  and  greatly  mar  the  simple  beauty 
of  the  delineation  of  the  soul  of  Jesus. 

So  every  prodigy  that  Jesus  is  represented  as 
performing  pushes  him  a  little  farther  away 
from  us,  and  makes  us  less  able  to  appreciate 
the  realities  of  his  suffering  yet  heroic  human 
life. 

We  shall  yet  have  in  literature  a  revolution 
like  that  which  has  begun  in  painting  in  refer- 
ence to  Jesus.  The  halos,  the  floating  clouds, 
the  winged  angels,  the  rosy  cherubs,  and  the 
gaudy  vestments  of  the  Italian  school  are  giv- 
ing way  to  simpler  and  truer  pictures  of  the 
waiting  and  sympathetic  human  Jesus. 


240  THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

But  if  the  poets  have  toiled  in  vain  to  repre- 
sent the  real  Jesus,  how  much  more  complete 
and  disastrous  has  been  the  failure  of  the 
systematizing  philosophers,  the  creed-makers 
and  professed  theologians.  At  their  hands 
Jesus  has  fared  worse  than  the  man  who  "went 
down  from  Jerusalem  to  Jericho  and  fell  among 
thieves  who  stripped  him  of  his  raiment,  beat 
and  wounded  him,  and  left  him  half  dead." 

But  the  people  have  been  wiser  than  the 
priests  and  theologians.  Unable  to  untwist 
the  iron  links  of  the  logician's  chain  they  have 
simply  laid  it  aside  and  ignored  it.  The  heart 
is  wiser  than  the  head,  and  so  the  instinct  of 
humanity  has  cleaved  to  the  sorrowing,  suffer- 
ing Son  of  Man  and  has  rejected  the  theolog- 
ical substitute  of  an  easily  offended  Mediator 
and  a  relentless  Judge.  Strange  indeed  that 
what  was  intended  for  the  highest  adoration 
should  have  resulted  in  the  deepest  abasement. 
With  every  added  title  and  external  honor  the 
intrinsic  worth  of  Jesus  has  been  lessened. 
Jesus  the  man  is  inexpressibly  beautiful  and 
attractive;  Jesus  the  demi-god  is  still  a  fasci- 
nating creation  of  art;  but  the  Jesus  of  Athan- 
asius  and  Calvin  and  their  followers,  the  angry 
and  pitiless  deity,  is  a  revolting  conception, 
essentially  and  basely  pagan. 


JESUS  AS  A  MAN  241 

Let  us  reverently  and  earnestly  study  the 
supreme  Son  of  Man,  praising  God  that  he 
has  given  such  power  unto  men  and  finding 
new  encouragement  and  hope  for  even  the 
lowest  human  life  because  it  is  potentially  one 
with  the  highest  example  of  manhood.  This 
was  the  original  faith  of  the  Christian  church, 
but  it  was  speedily  crushed  by  pagan  philoso- 
phies, and  then  lay  in  abeyance  during  the 
ages  of  ignorance,  but  has  steadily  grown  since 
the  Reformation,  controls  now  the  higher 
intellect  and  scholarship  of  the  civilized 
nations,  and  will  eventually  supplant  the  re- 
ceived Christian  mythology  as  completely  as 
science  and  ethics  have  effaced  the  "bleating 
gods"  of  Egypt  and  the  anthropomorphic 
deities  of  Mount  Olympus. 

The  doctrine  of  the  unity  of  God  is  among 
the  most  rational  and  firmly  established  of 
truths.  It  rests  on  an  induction  so  strong  and 
simple  as  to  be  like  a  primary  truth.  It  is  sup- 
ported by  the  most  powerful  scientific  analogies 
and  harmonizes  the  phenomena  of  the  moral 
universe  in  the  same  manner  as  gravitation  and 
the  indestructibility  of  matter  harmonize  the 
phenomena  of  the  physical  world.  It  was  the 
faith  of  the  greatest  line  of  prophets  and  the 
most    religious    nation    of    antiquity,    and    in 


242   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

ancient  as  in  modern  times  of  the  wisest  and 
most  virtuous  philosophers.  It  has  always 
been  the  nominal  creed  of  Christendom  and  is 
now  both  the  nominal  and  actual  creed  of 
every  educated  man.  It  is  of  course  believed 
by  some  in  conjunction  with  the  doctrine  of 
the  Trinity,  but  the  acceptance  of  two  incom- 
patible opinions  when  it  is  not  due  to  pure 
ignorance  and  thoughtlessness,  is  either  pious 
faith  in  a  mystery  with  which  reason  should 
not  presume  to  deal,  or  indolent  acquiescence 
in  a  tradition  which  it  has  been  assumed  it 
v/ould  injure  religion  and  morality  to  disturb. 
As  soon  as  the  mass  of  Christians  fairly  face  the 
question  and  make  their  choice  between  three 
gods  and  one  God,  there  cannot  be  any  doubt 
as  to  their  decision.  The  Trinity  was  an  im- 
measurable advance  upon  polytheism,  but  a 
still  nobler  conception  is  that  of  Paul,  "Then 
shall  the  Son  also  himself  be  subject  .  .  .  that 
God  may  be  all  in  all"  (i  Cor.  15:  28). 

Creation  as  a  whole  is  a  manifestation  of  the 
power  and  wisdom  and  goodness  of  God,  and 
each  part  of  it,  every  plant,  bird  and  beast,  and 
especially  every  man,  is  to  some  extent  a 
manifestation  of  the  greatness  of  the  skill,  of 
the  unfathomable  variety  of  the  mind  of  the 
Creator.     But  it  is  the  wildest  of  man's  dreams 


JESUS  AS  A  MAN  243 

to  identify  any  one  man  absolutely  with  the 
Creator  of  all.  There  is  no  only-begotten 
Son,  for  God  is  the  Creator  and  Father  of 
all  men.  To  make  Jesus  God  not  only  robs 
humanity  of  its  greatest  example  of  virtue  and 
power,  not  only  deprives  Jesus  himself  of  all 
merit  as  a  sufferer  and  worker  in  our  behalf, 
but  it  must  offend  the  Almighty  God.  It  is 
excusable  in  the  ignorant,  but  surely  intelligent 
people, while  rising  above  the  primitive  fear  of 
a  jealous  and  revengeful  God  to  Christ's  con- 
ception of  a  patient  and  loving  Father,  will  see 
that  it  cannot  be  pleasing  to  the  Most  High  to 
have  his  glory  given  to  another. 

The  essence  of  modern  orthodoxy  is  that 
men  are  saved  by  a  vicarious  atonement,  a  bap- 
tism, and  faith  that  Jesus  was  God  incarnate. 
The  teaching  of  John  the  Baptist  and  of  Jesus 
is  that  righteousness  is  personal,  that  men  are 
saved  by  truth  and  purity,  by  justice  and 
mercy.  The  idea  that  men  can  be  saved 
by  a  ceremony  or  a  creed  or  by  substituted 
righteousness  is  only  a  more  refined  idolatry 
and  does  not  differ  in  principle  from  belief 
in  the  efficacy  of  the  blood  of  bulls  and 
goats. 

The  measure  in  which  any  one  feels  the 
nobility  of  the  life  of  Jesus  is  the  measure  of 


244  THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

his  own  nobility  of  soul  and  of  his  own  intel- 
ligence and  virtue. 

Very  early  in  the  history  of  the  Christian 
church  the  prediction  was  put  into  his  mouth, 
"I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth,  will  draw 
all  men  unto  me."  From  the  day  of  the 
crucifixion  to  the  present  time  his  power,  con- 
trary to  all  human  probability  and  expectation, 
has  continually  increased.  The  work  of  Jesus 
seemed  to  be  utterly  lost.  He  died  in 
ignominy  and  left  no  written  record,  no  code 
of  laws,  no  defined  ceremonies,  no  property, 
no  buildings,  nothing  but  a  few  disciples  and 
the  memory  of  his  life  and  words.  He  was 
denied,  betrayed,  crowned  with  thorns, 
scourged,  and  crucified.  His  last  utterance  on 
earth  was  a  groan  as  in  agony  his  great  soul 
left  its  earthly  tenement,  yet  not  a  throb  of 
his  heart  or  brain  has  been  without  effect. 
His  life  is  the  most  successful  life  that  was 
ever  lived.  Every  great  idea  that  he  cherished 
has  struck  deep  root  in  the  hearts  of  men,  and 
is  continually  conquering  new  fields  of  thought 
and  new  areas  of  population. 

"The  love  of  Christ  constrains"  men  as 
nothing  else  does.  For  many  years  I  have 
watched  the  windows  of  a  dormitory  for  theo- 
logical students,  and  have  seen  that  in  some 


JESUS  AS  A  MAN  245 

rooms  lamps  were  burning  till  past  midnight, 
and  in  others  that  they  were  lighted  before  the 
dawn.  Through  almost  the  entire  night  those 
stars  of  student  industry  shine.  No  other 
motive  power  known  to  me  is  so  strong  and 
steady  a  quickener  of  intellectual  and  spiritual 
life  as  "the  love  of  Christ." 

The  life  of  Jesus  was  noble  and  complete. 
His  ideals  were  lofty,  and  he  maintained  them 
against  all  obstacles  and  allurements,  and, 
what  is  most  important  of  all,  he  expressed 
them  in  imperishable  words  and  acts.  He 
finished  the  work  that  was  given  him  to  do. 
Seven  great  qualities  seem  to  me  especially 
prominent  in  the  character  of  Jesus:  faith, 
spirituality,  benevolence,  intellect,  courage, 
energy,  and,  as  the  result  of  them  all,  power. 
He  had  the  rare  and  wonderful  quality  of  per- 
sonal faith  in  God.  He  seemed  to  see  God 
work  and  hear  him  speak.  Most  believers 
believe  on  the  testimony  of  others;  Jesus 
differs  from  them  in  that  he  believes  primarily 
because  of  his  own  intuitions. 

The  great  fundamental  question  of  religion 
is  the  character  of  God.  The  practical  con- 
flict of  opinion  is  between  those  who  love  and 
trust  God  and  those  who  do  not,  between  those 
who  believe  that  God  is  positively  and  ener- 


246   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

getically  good,  that  he  is  exerting  infinite 
power  and  infinite  wisdom  to  benefit  man,  and 
those  who  disbelieve,  or  at  least  doubt,  that 
God  really  cares  much  for  man's  welfare. 
Now  Jesus  is  the  Captain  of  our  Salvation 
because  he  is  the  pre-eminent  asserterof  God's 
goodness.  God,  as  Jesus  portrays  him,  is 
"our  Father  in  heaven."  It  was  from  Jesus 
that  John  learned  that  God  is  love.  It  was 
from  Jesus  that  Paul  learned  that  it  is  "more 
blessed  to  give  than  to  receive." 

This  faith  in  God  is  the  basis  of  every 
other  great  quality  in  the  character  of  Jesus. 
Believing  in  the  goodness  of  God,  it  was 
easy  to  believe  that  "the  pure  in  heart  are 
blessed"  and  that  "the  meek  shall  inherit  the 
earth." 

Yet  his  faith  was  voluntary  and  meritorious, 
and  not  necessitated  and  absolute.  "He  was 
tempted  in  all  points  as  we  are."  His  faith 
was  nourished  as  ours  must  be  by  obedience 
and  prayer. 

The  test  of  common  men  is  to  be  true  to  con- 
viction even  in  small  matters.  If  a  man  could 
know  that  his  fidelity  to  principle  would  bene- 
fit many  nations  for  thousands  of  years,  he 
would  be  greatly  strengthened  to  sacrifice  his 
comfort  and  life  and  glory.     But  if  he  fears 


JESUS  AS  A  MAN  247 

that  his  sacrifice  of  comfort  and  even  of  life 
will  influence  very  few  people  and  for  a  very 
short  time  and  be  an  insignificant  and  soon- 
forgotten  event,  his  sacrifice  rises  immeasurably 
in  the  moral  scale,  for  it  is  made  to  duty  and 
not  to  the  love  of  glory, 

Jesus  met  this  test,  and  for  a  long  time  did 
his  duty  in  obscurity  and  uncertainty.  But,  as 
he  taught  the  world,  "If  any  man  seeks  to  do 
God's  will,  he  shall  know  what  that  will  is," 
so  the  trust  of  Jesus  grew  continually  stronger, 
yet,  as  we  see  by  his  agonies  and  temptations 
even  to  the  close  of  his  life,  he  still  walked  as 
a  Son  of  Man  by  true  faith,  and  not  as  God  to 
whose  vision  the  future  is  as  clear  as  the  past 
and  present. 

He  may  have  dreamed  and  hoped 'about  uni- 
versal fame  and  power,  but  he  had  no  assur- 
ance of  it.  His  biographers  have  attributed 
beliefs  and  motives  to  him.  He  has  been 
made  to  see  the  extent  of  his  future  power  as 
Columbus  has  been  represented  as  foreseeing 
all  the  glories  of  the  western  continent,  but  it 
is  not  true  that  Jesus  was  thus  paid  in  advance. 
His  greatness  is  infinitely  higher.  It  is  the 
greatness  of  faith,  not  in  the  seen  but  in  the 
unseen.  He  was  a  true  son  of  Abraham,  who 
obeyed  God  not  knowing  whither  he  went;  he 


448      THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

is  the  Captain  of  our  Salvation  because  he, 
like  us,  is  saved  by  faith  and  hope. 

Not  his  genius  but  his  love,  his  courage,  and 
his  fidelity  are  the  most  admirable  and  extraor- 
dinary elements  in  the  character  of  Jesus. 
Who  is  so  base  and  selfish  that  he  does  not 
even  wish  well  to  his  fellow  men?  Every  man 
dreams  of  doing  good,  but  few  have  the  faith 
and  courage  to  accomplish  or  even  to  under- 
take any  great  work  for  the  good  of  man- 
kind. 

It  is  because  Jesus  "endured  to  the  end" 
that  he  is  saved,  because  he  drank  the  cup  of 
obedience  and  suffering  to  the  dregs,  that  he 
wears  his  matchless  crown.  If  he  had  flinched 
at  last,  if  he  had  "disgraced  beauty  of  senti- 
ment by  deformity  of  conduct,"  he  would 
have  been  a  mere  "dreamer  of  the  Ghetto,"  and 
his  discouraged  disciples  would  never  have 
rallied,  and  there  would  never  have  been  a 
Christian  church.  If,  after  all  his  beatitudes, 
his  parables,  his  words  of  eloquence  and  his 
deeds  of  mercy,  if  at  the  last  he  had  made 
peace  with  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  and 
agreed  to  be  "prudent  and  practical"  and 
"make  changes  only  as  fast  as  the  church  was 
ready  to  accept  them,"  if,  in  short,  he  had 
compromised  with  his  convictions  in  the  man- 


JESUS  AS  A  MAN  249 

ner  of  so  many  other  reformers  ancient  and 
modern,  he  would  now  have  only  the  same 
petty  academic  fame  that  belongs  to  other  men 
whose  lives  have  been  less  noble  than  their 
words.  "If  ye  know  these  things,  happy  are 
ye  if  ye  do  them." 

To  faith,  courage,  benevolence,  and  intel- 
lect, Jesus  added  the  homely  but  essential 
virtue  of  industry.  He  did  not  think  of  the 
world  as  made  in  six  days  and  God  as  since 
then  sitting  in  idle  pomp.  No,  he  saw  that 
God's  love  and  power  are  ever  active.  He  saw 
God  as  the  keeper  of  Israel,  who  neither  slum- 
bers nor  sleeps,  as  him  in  whom  we  live  and 
move  and  have  our  being,  as  him  who  sustains 
all  things  by  the  exercise  of  his  power,  as  him 
who  opens  his  hand  and  satisfies  the  desires  of 
every  living  thing.  Jesus  saw  God  not  only  as 
a  Ruler  and  Judge,  but  as  a  Father  whose 
greatness  consists  in  laboring  for  the  good  of 
all  his  children.  God  was  to  him  the  Supreme 
Worker.  "My  Father  worketh  hitherto,  and  I 
work."  Work  was  his  joy.  He  was  straitened 
until  his  mission  was  accomplished. 

The  claims  put  forth  by  Jesus  himself  and  by 
others  in  his  behalf  are  so  exalted  that  it  is 
surprising  to  hear  him  say  of  himself,  "I  am 
meek  and  lowly,"  yet  there  is  nothing  in  all 


250  THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

the  gospel  more  touching  than  this  confession 
and  the  appeal  based  upon  it. 

All  the  great  claims  of  Jesus  were  represent- 
ative and  official.  In  his  personal  character 
he,  like  all  truly  great  men,  was  humble.  It 
was  from  a  fountain  of  humility,  joy  and  peace 
in  his  soul  that  he  said,  "Take  my  yoke  upon 
you  and  learn  of  me,  for  I  am  meek  and  lowly 
in  heart,  and  ye  shall  find  rest  unto  your 
souls." 

He  was  not  only  humble  but  patient  and 
"slow  to  anger."  He  did  not  resent  mere 
personal  insults.  When  rejected  by  the 
Samaritans,  he  went  uncomplainingly  to  an- 
other village.  Yet  "beware  the  fury  of  a 
patient  man."  No  one  was  ever  so  vehement 
in  his  scorn  of  hypocrisy  and  greed,  because  no 
one  was  so  free  from  any  complicity  in  them, 
and  to  no  one  else  was  their  hideousness  so 
apparent. 

Jesus  was  the  champion  of  the  common 
people  whom  God  loves  and  whom  proud  and 
cruel  men  have  called  the  proletariat.  He  was 
the  poet  of  hope,  the  teacher  of  morality,  the 
martyr  of  truth  and  justice,  the  friend  of  man, 
the  obedient  Son  of  God. 

I  hold  with  the  man  who  loves  and  admires 
Jesus    Christ,    whatever    may   be    that    man's 


JESUS  AS  A  MAN  251 

errors,  rather  than  with  the  man  who  does  not 
love  and  admire  Jesus,  whatever  may  be  that 
man's  truths.  I  consider  that  the  lover  of 
Jesus  is,  on  the  whole,  the  wiser  and  the  better 
man  of  the  two,  even  if  he  tells  his  beads  on  a 
rosary  because  he  cannot  read,  and  even  if  the 
other  man  be  a  polished  scholar. 

Greater  than  the  tiller  of  the  soil  who  feeds, 
or  the  artisan  who  clothes  the  body,  greater 
than  the  thinker  who  informs  the  mind,  is  the 
prophet  who  purifies  and  elevates  the  soul. 
The  chief  danger  to  the  supremacy  of  Jesus  in 
this  regard  is  from  those  exaggerated  claims 
which  provoke  dissent  and  lead  to  an  equally 
exaggerated  rejection  of  them.  To  exalt  one 
into  a  deity  is  to  obliterate  his  characteristics 
as  a  man,  and  to  cast  doubt  upon  all  his  actual 
virtues  and  achievements.  Countless  good 
men  have  suffered  by  this  process.  Canonize 
a  man  and  remove  him  from  criticism,  and 
while  he  is  placed  on  a  pedestal  he  is  rendered 
motionless,  lifeless,  and  uninteresting.  The 
least  interesting  biographies  are  those  in  which 
adoration  has  most  completely  obliterated  the 
natural  features  of  character.  The  educated, 
even  the  ignorant,  world  can  no  longer  read  the 
legends  of  the  saints,  and  in  the  same  way  the 
world  is  tiring  of  the  orthodox  sermon  on  the 


252   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

miracles  of  Jesus,  and  is  concentrating  atten- 
tion more  and  more  upon  his  genius,  aims  and 
virtues. 

He  remains  greatest  of  the  good  and  best  of 
the  great.  Some  men  and  women  may  have 
been  as  innocent,  gentle,  patient,  compassion- 
ate and  loving,  may  have  been  like  him  in  his 
lamblike  aspect,  but  how  immeasurably  differ- 
ent they  are  from  him  when  he  becomes  the 
lion  of  the  tribe  of  Judah,  how  different 
in  originality  of  intellect,  in  force  of  will, 
in  power  to  do  and  to  rule.  What  a  pal- 
try thing  is  mere  innocence,  merely  doing 
no  harm,  beside  positive  and  high  achieve- 
ment! How  Jesus  himself  condemns  a  merely 
negative  character,  one  whose  talent  is  buried 
in  the  earth!  Almost  every  strong,  active, 
positive  character  in  doing  his  work  will  make 
some  mistakes.  The  wheels  will  creak,  the 
dust  will  rise,  the  coach  will  jolt,  if  it  is  to 
move  onward.  The  deep,  fertilizing  river  will 
sometimes  overflow  its  banks,  but  better  the 
great  volume  of  water,  enriching  vast  areas  and 
bearing  commerce  on  its  bosom,  even  though 
it  now  and  then  rises  too  high  and  devastates 
the  surrounding  country,  than  the  tiny  rivulet 
powerless  alike  for  good  or  evil.  The  marvel 
of  marvels  is  that  a  character  of  such  tremen- 


JESUS  AS  A  MAN  253 

dous  force  and  of  such  mighty  genius  as  that 
of  Jesus  remained  at  all  times  and  under  every 
stress  of  temptation  submissive  to  the  moral 
law  and  obedient  to  the  voice  of  conscience. 

He  conquered  all  the  weaknesses  of  human- 
ity. The  love  of  money,  of  social  rank,  of 
ease,  of  "the  bubble  reputation,"  did  not  move 
him.  He  went  about  doing  good.  He  gave 
himself  for  others.  Trained  though  he  was 
among  forms  and  traditions,  he  taught  men 
that  religion  was  a  thing  of  the  spirit,  and  that 
sin  was  in  the  motive  as  well  as  in  the  act. 
He  lifted  himself  above  the  prejudices  of  race 
and  was  the  first  to  give  the  world  a  religion  of 
humanity,  one  which  was  not  only  to  be  world- 
wide in  its  extent,  but  all-inclusive  in  its  em- 
brace, for  it  was  to  do  good  even  to  the 
unthankful  and  to  the  evil,  and  to  remove 
hatred  from  the  world  by  putting  an  end  to 
retaliation.  Compared  with  the  establishment 
of  a  religion  adapted  to  become,  and  apparently 
destined  to  be,  universal,  a  religion  of  abso- 
lute purity  and  of  boundless  benevolence,  how 
small  is  the  achievement  of  any  inventor  or 
man  of  science,  of  any  artist,  dramatist,  legis- 
lator or  conqueror!  The  instinct  of  humanity 
is  right  in  placing  Jesus  high  above  Archi- 
medes and  Newton,  above  Raphael,  Beethoven, 


254   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

and  Shakespeare,  high  above  Alfred  and 
Washington.  He  must  be  compared  only  with 
Moses,  Zoroaster,  Socrates,  Confucius,  Buddha, 
and  Mohammed,  and  though  the  suffrage  of 
the  world  has  not  yet  been  given,  though  the 
world  at  large  has  not  even  attempted  a  full 
and  impartial  comparison  of  these  founders 
and  their  systems,  it  seems  probable  that  the 
comparison  that  will  inevitably  be  made  in  the 
future,  while  it  will  raise  the  great  prophets  of 
other  nations,  who  are  now  among  us  unduly 
depressed  by  our  ignorance  and  prejudice,  will 
also  serve  to  bring  out  more  clearly  the  superi- 
ority of  Jesus  as  the  pre-eminent  Son  of  Man. 

The  character  of  Jesus  is  so  colossal  that  it 
is  unintelligible  to  us,  accustomed  as  we  are 
to  a  different  type  of  humanity.  We  under- 
stand great  inventors,  great  statesmen,  great 
manufacturers  and  merchants,  but  in  this  age 
and  country  we  rarely  see  and  little  understand 
the  prophet  and  the  poet.  There  is  a  reserve 
power  in  nature  beyond  our  comprehension. 
Travelers  in  the  tropics  are  astonished  to  find 
that  many  plants  and  animals  attain  there 
twenty  times  the  size  that  they  have  in  the 
temperate  zone.  Our  delicate  hot-house 
plants  are  there  hardy  and  luxuriant  trees. 
Our  weak    and   timid    domestic   animals    are 


JESUS  AS  A  MAN  255 

proud  and  beautiful  lords  of  forest  and  plain. 
Geraniums  are  trees,  and  cats  are  tigers. 

Something  analogous  to  this  is  seen  in  the 
difference  between  the  modern  man,  cramped 
and  pressed  down  by  a  life  of  routine,  by  a 
mass  of  unassimilated  knowledge,  by  multi- 
plied legal  restraints  and  by  exacting  toil,  and 
the  greater  men  who  lived  in  earlier  times  and 
simpler  conditions. 

This  stern  discipline  is  doubtless  improving 
the  race  in  important  respects,  and  on  the 
whole  working  out  good  results,  yet  in  one 
great  field  at  least  we  seem  to  have  lost  the 
grandeur  that  human  character  once  exhibited. 
As  compared  with  those  of  the  ancient 
prophets,  the  imaginations  of  our  modern  reli- 
gious teachers  are  dull,  their  emotions  cold, 
their  wills  feeble,  their  courage  small.  They 
and  we  stand  abased  and  amazed  at  the  char- 
acter of  Jesus,  as  the  northern  barbarians 
accustomed  to  log  huts  were  abased  and 
amazed  when  they  saw  the  Coliseum  and  the 
palaces  of  the  Caesars.  The  character  of  Jesus 
would  be  better  understood  among  us  if  we 
were  better  acquainted  with  the  saints  and 
martyrs  and  prophets,  if  we  familiarized  our- 
selves with  the  lives  of  Mohammed,  of  Joan  of 
Arc,   of   Saint  Theresa,   of   Saint   Francis,   of 


356   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

George  Fox,  of  Emanuel  Swedenborg  and 
others,  who  have  had  heavenly  visions  and  in 
the  strength  of  these  have  accomplished  mar- 
velous works. 

Jesus  transcends  the  limits  of  nationality  as 
no  other  man  has  done.  He  is  not,  like 
Alfred  or  Washington,  the  ideal  of  a  single 
people  or  type.  His  mind  was  broader,  his 
nature  more  sympathetic  than  theirs.  Jesus  is 
the  ideal  man,  the  hero  of  humanity.  He  was 
so  pure,  so  benevolent,  so  wise  and  so  cour- 
ageous, that  his  character  fascinates  and  domi- 
nates all  who  fix  their  attention  closely  upon 
it.  It  is  no  wonder  that  in  the  effort  to  ex- 
press their  love  and  admiration  men  have 
employed  all  the  resources  of  language  and 
called  him  by  every  endearing  and  by  every 
honorable  name. 

He  died  in  the  prime  of  the  strength  of  body 
and  mind.  He  was  spared  "the  indignities  of 
decline  and  the  cold  gradations  of  decay." 
More  beautiful  than  Apollo  is  this  daring 
young  prophet.  Trusting  his  intuitions  and 
braving  reproach  and  persecution,  he  threw 
himself  against  formalism,  hypocrisy,  greed, 
and  cruelty,  and  taught  men  to  love  and  help 
one  another.  He  is  not  only  the  culmination  of 
Jewish    heroism,   but  the   most   romantic  and 


JESUS  AS  A  MAN  257 

noble  figure  in  the  history  of  humanity, — the 
man  of  sorrows,  the  friend  of  sinners.  He 
died  that  we  might  live.  He  sacrificed  him- 
self to  deliver  men  from  a  yoke  and  open  to 
them  a  larger  life. 


CHAPTER   XXVIII 

THE   TESTIMONY   OF    SCRIPTURE 

The  Trinity  never  commended  itself  to  any- 
one's reasoning  as  an  abstract  proposition. 
When  accepted  it  has  always  been  as  a  compro- 
mise, an  escape  from  the  difficulties  and  the 
contradictions  in  the  Bible.  Divest  the  doc- 
trine of  its  biblical  support,  and  every  mind 
would  reject  it. 

There  are  some  persons  to  whom  no  confir- 
mation is  so  strong  as  a  "text  of  holy  writ." 
As  a  means  of  helping  such  people  to  the 
truth,  let  us  examine  what  the  Scriptures  say 
in  regard  to  the  unity  of  God.  In  the  first 
place  it  must  be  remarked  that  the  word  god  is 
often  used  in  a  derivative  sense,  as  for  instance 
in  the  first  commandment,  "Thou  shalt  have  no 
other  gods  before  me"  (Ex.  20:  3).  It  is  some- 
times thought  that  this  text  shows  that  the 
Jews  at  this  time  believed  in  polytheism  and 
regarded  Jehovah  as  their  national  god  only, 
and  not  as  the  God  of  the  whole  earth.  By 
others  it  is  regarded  only  as  a  warning  against 
idols,  which  are  mere  creations  of  superstition, 
258 


THE  TESTIMONY  OF  SCRIPTURE  259 

"nothing  in  the  world."  The  Psalmist  makes 
a  glorious  distinction  between  the  omnipotent 
Jehovah  and  the  false  gods  of  the  heathen. 
"All  the  gods  of  the  nations  are  idols:  but  the 
Lord  made  the  heavens."  The  books  of  the 
Old  Testament  are  one  continued  protest 
against  idolatry  and  polytheism.  Jesus  him- 
self in  summing  up  the  Law  and  the  Prophets 
quotes  from  Deut.  4:  5,  6,  and  says  the  first  and 
greatest  commandment  is,  "Hear,  O  Israel, 
The  Lord  our  God  is  one  Lord,  and  thou  shalt 
love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and 
with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind,  and 
with  all  thy  strength:  this  is  the  first  com- 
mandment" (Mark  12:29,  30).  All  the  other 
utterances  of  Jesus  are  consistent  with  this.  He 
always  represented  himself  as  one  appointed 
and  sent  to  do  the  will  of  the  Father  in  heaven 
and  possessing  only  a  delegated  power.  "I 
can  of  mine  own  self  do  nothing;  as  I  hear,  I 
judge:  and  my  judgment  is  just:  because  I  seek 
not  mine  own  will,  but  the  will  of  the  Father 
which  sent  me"  (John  5:3).  He  has  no  power 
to  protect  himself  in  danger,  but  says  to  Peter: 
"Thinkest  thou  that  I  cannot  now  pray  to  my 
Father,  and  he  shall  presently  give  me  more 
than  twelve  legions  of  angels?"  (Matt.  27:  53). 
When  he  sits  upon  his  throne  in  his  highest 


26o  THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

exaltation,  it  is  an  honor  received  from  the 
Father,  and  he  tells  his  disciples:  "To  sit  on 
my  right  hand  and  on  my  left  is  not  mine  to 
give,  but  it  shall  be  given  to  them  for  whom  it 
is  prepared  of  my  Father"  (Matt.  20:23).  He 
does  not  even  know  the  future.  Of  the  time 
of  the  coming  judgment  he  says:  "Of  that  day 
and  that  hour  knoweth  no  man,  no,  not  the 
angels  which  are  in  heaven,  neither  the  Son, 
but  the  Father"  (Mark  13:  32).  The  writer  of 
the  book  of  Job  says  of  God:  "He  put  no  trust 
in  his  servants;  and  his  angels  he  charged  with 
folly;  .  .  .  yea  the  stars  are  not  pure  in  his 
sight"  (Job.  15:15  and  25:  5).  With  the  same 
sense  of  the  infinite  disparity  between  the 
original  and  perfect  holiness  of  the  Creator  and 
the  reflected  and  imperfect  goodness  of  the 
creature,  Jesus  refused  to  be  called  "good," 
saying  to  one  who  addressed  him  as  Good 
Master:  "Why  callest  thou  me  good?  there  is 
none  good  but  one,  that  is  God"  (Matt.  19:  17). 
The  apostles  understood  and  preached  the 
subordination  of  Jesus.  Paul,  writing  to  the 
Corinthians,  declared:  "All  things  are  yours; 
and  ye  are  Christ's,  and  Christ  is  God's" 
(i  Cor.  3:22,  23).  Again  he  says:  "I  would 
have  you  know  that  the  head  of  every  man  is 
Christ;  .  .  .   and  the  head  of   Christ  is  God" 


THE  TESTIMONY  OF  SCRIPTURE  261 

(i  Cor.  11:3).  Looking  forward  to  the  final 
triumph  of  Christ,  Paul  says:  "When  all  things 
shall  be  subdued  under  him,  then  shall  the  Son 
also  himself  be  subject  unto  him  that  put  all 
things  under  him,  that  God  may  be  all  in  all" 
(l  Cor.  15:  28). 

Peter's  testimony  agrees  with  Paul's. 
Preaching  at  Pentecost  Peter  says:  "Jesus  of 
Nazareth,  a  man  approved  of  God  among  you 
by  miracles  and  wonders  and  signs  which  God 
did  by  him  in  the  midst  of  you"  (Acts  2:22). 
When  questioned  by  the  council  as  to  his 
preaching,  Peter  declared:  "The  God  of  our 
fathers  raised  up  Jesus  whom  ye  slew"  (Acts 
5:  30).  On  another  occasion  Peter  declared  in 
a  sermon:  "God  anointed  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  power:  who 
went  about  doing  good,  and  healing  all  that 
were  oppressed  of  the  devil;  for  God  was  with 
him"  (Acts  10:38). 

"In  the  mouth  of  two  or  three  witnesses 
shall  every  word  be  established."  Here  is 
abundant  testimony  from  Jesus  himself  and 
from  the  evangelists  and  apostles  as  to  the 
primitive  faith  of  the  church.  Language  could 
not  be  more  clear  and  emphatic,  and  if  all 
references  in  the  New  Testament  had  been 
similar  no  dogma  of   the   Trinity  could  have 


262   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

arisen.  It  is  not  to  be  denied,  however,  that 
there  are  very  many  passages,  which  ascribe  to 
Jesus  unique  and  superhuman  powers  and  dig- 
nities, and  from  these  in  course  of  time  a  sys- 
tem of  doctrine  was  developed  which  represents 
Jesus  as  the.  firstborn  of  every  creature,  created 
before  all  angels  and  all  worlds,  and  therefore, 
in  a  sense,  the  only-begotten  Son  of  God. 
This  theology,  known  as  Arianism,  after  a  time 
gave  way  to  the  full  Trinitarianism  of  Athana- 
sius.  By  selecting  the  poetic  and  mystical 
titles  of  Jesus  from  the  gospel  of  John  and 
from  Paul's  epistles,  and  ignoring  the  declara- 
tions of  Jesus  himself  and  the  explicit  lan- 
guage of  the  synoptic  gospels  and  the  Acts,  the 
Arians  can  fully  establish  their  view. 

But  no  one  has  any  right  to  ignore  those 
early  and  definite  declarations,  or  to  attach 
equal  importance  to  the  later  and  less  intel- 
ligible statements,  Arianism  satisfies  neither 
those  who  believe  in  the  unity  of  God  nor 
those  who  consider  that  there  is  a  divine 
Trinity.  It  is  a  compromise.  Though  it  is  a 
much  more  plausible  and  more  scriptural  doc- 
trine than  Trinitarianism,  it  does  not  appeal 
strongly  either  to  cool  reason  or  to  fervid 
devotion.  Imagination  and  reason  alike  push 
on  to  full  development. 


THE  .TESTIMONY  OF  SCRIPTURE  263 

Tract  No.  2,  published  by  the  American 
Unitarian  Association,  asserts:  "Of  1300  pas- 
sages in  the  New  Testament  wherein  the  word 
God  is  mentioned,  not  one  necessarily  implies 
the  existence  of  more  than  one  person  in  the 
Godhead,  or  that  this  one  is  any  other  than  the 
Father." 

"There  are  320  passages  in  which  the  Father 
is  absolutely  and  by  way  of  eminence  called 
God;  while  there  is  not  one  in  which  the  Son 
is  so  styled."  "The  terms  which  are  neces- 
sary to  the  very  statement  of  the  doctrine  [of 
the  Trinity]  are  not  found  in  Scripture.  The 
words  Trinity — triune — God-man  are  not  in  the 
Scriptures.  We  nowhere  find  the  expression 
God  the  Son,  but  always  the  Son  of  God;  no- 
where God  the  Holy  Spirit,  but  the  Spirit  of 
God.  The  expressions,  first  person,  second 
person,  third  person,  three  persons,  are  not 
found." 

In  its  literary  aspect  the  Revised  Version  of 
the  English  Bible  is  a  great  disappointment. 
It  seems  to  me  a  mistake  to  substitute  for  the 
alliterative  and  euphonious  "clear  as  crystal," 
the  unmusical  and  not  essentially  more  accurate 
expression  "bright  as  crystal,"  and  to  alter 
"Eliezer  of  Damascus"  into  the  unintelligible 
"Dammesek  Eliezer,"   and  it  is  literalism  run 


264  THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

mad  to  change  the  expression  "the  earth  is  his 
footstool"  from  its  sublime  simplicity  and 
strength  into  the  clumsy  tautology  "the  earth 
is  the  footstool  of  his  feet." 

But  whatever  may  be  the  faults  of  style  in 
their  version,  the  last  revisers  set  a  noble  ex- 
ample of  fidelity  to  the  facts  in  their  dealing 
with  the  corruptions  of  the  text.  On  the 
authority  of  the  earliest  manuscripts  they  have 
altered  or  omitted  some  of  the  most  famous  of 
the  Trinitarian  proof  texts.  They  have  omitted 
altogether,  "There  are  three  that  bear  record 
in  heaven,  the  Father,  the  Word  and  the  Holy 
Ghost:  and  these  three  are  one."  They 
append  to  the  sixteenth  chapter  of  the  gospel 
of  Mark  the  significant  note:  "The  two  oldest 
Greek  manuscripts  and  some  other  authorities 
omit  from  verse  9  to  the  end  of  the  chapter." 
In  I  Tim.  3:  16,  they  change  "God  was  mani- 
fest in  the  flesh"  into  "He  who  was  manifested 
in  the  flesh,"  and  they  change  Luke  2:  33  from 
"Joseph  and  his  mother"  to  "his  father  and  his 
mother." 

The  earlier  the  manuscript  the  less  Trini- 
tarian it  is.  Yet  the  oldest  extant  manuscripts 
of  the  New  Testament  are  none  of  them  earlier 
than  the  fourth  century,  and,  as  they  vary  very 
much  from  each  other,  it  is  a  moral  certainty 


THE  TESTIMONY  OF  SCRIPTURE  265 

that  the  text  of  no  one  of  them  is  throughout 
identical  with  the  original  gospels  and  epistles. 
Growth  and  decay  are  universal  laws,  and, 
though  we  talk  lightly  of  three  centuries,  it  is 
a  long  period,  and  affords  time  for  great  modi- 
fications in  ancient  popular  writings,  multiplied 
not  as  now  in  great  stereotyped  editions,  but 
one  by  one,  and  thus  subject  to  all  the  errors 
and  caprices  of  each  transcriber. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 

THE    CHRISTIAN   CENTURIES 

The  personality  of  Jesus  is  so  striking  that  in 
regard  to  it  the  minds  of  men  have  vacillated 
between  irrational  unbelief  and  irrational 
credulity.  There  were  once  many,  and  there 
are  still  a  few,  persons  who  think  that  there 
never  was  such  a  man,  and  that  the  whole  story 
about  him  is  a  pure  fiction,  as  much  so  as  that 
of  Prometheus  or  Hercules,  and  that  like  other 
wonderful  creations  its  only  original  is  the  love 
of  the  marvelous  and  the  longing  for  the  ideal, 
inherent  in  human  nature. 

At  the  other  extreme  are  those  who  regard 
every  detail  in  each  of  the  four  biblical  biog- 
raphies as  absolutely  true,  who  think  that  each 
writer  was  supernaturally  preserved  from  error 
and  that  no  subsequent  copyist  has  altered,  or 
commentator  amplified,  the  story  in  the  least. 

Between  these  extremists  there  is  a  growing 
body  of  investigators  who  believe  first  that  the 
historic  Jesus  was  a  man  of  most  remarkable 
character,  and  secondly  that  his  wonderful  per- 
sonality, having  won  the  love  and  admiration  of 
266 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CENTURIES     267 

men,  has  been  idealized  with  all  the  artistic 
skill  that  affection  delights  to  lavish  upon  the 
object  of  its  regard.  Men  admire  the  strength 
and  courage  of  the  warrior  and  they  exag- 
gerate his  feats,  but  no  Samson  ever  actually 
killed  a  thousand  men  with  his  own  hand  in 
one  battle.  Men  admire  woman's  beauty  and 
idealize  it  in  song,  but  no  Annie  Laurie  ever 
had  a  brow  whiter  than  the  snowdrift,  and  no 
Juliet  eyes  that  could  shine  in  the  sky  in  the 
place  of  stars.  We  have  everywhere  to  reckon 
with  the  poetry  and  hyperbole  of  affection. 

Jesus  was  considered  to  be  God  by  the 
majority  of  Christians  from  very  early  times, 
but  the  majority  have  also  believed  a  thousand 
other  now  discarded  superstitions.  Truth  is 
not  to  be  decided  by  majorities;  and  if  it  were, 
would  not  that  method  of  determination  be 
fatal  to  every  Protestant  church,  nay,  to  Chris- 
tianity itself,  for  it  is  certain  Buddhists,  Con- 
fucianists,  Mohammedans  and  pagans  of  vari- 
ous sorts  still  far  outnumber  Christians. 

So  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  learn,  the  strict 
doctrine  of  the  unity  of  God  was  universally 
held  in  the  Christian  church  throughout  the 
first  century. 

The  New  Testament,  at  least,  which  speaks 
of  so  many  controversies  on  other  subjects,  has 


268   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

not  a  word  to  say  about  any  division  of  opinion 
upon  this  one.  In  the  New  Testament  there  is 
no  mention  of  any  God  the  Son  or  God  the 
Holy  Spirit,  but  only  of  the  Son  of  God  and 
the  Spirit  of  God.  In  the  first  century  there 
were  those  who  held  that  Jesus  was  only  a 
prophet  like  Moses  or  Elijah,  and  there  were 
those  who  believed  that  he  Was  an  inferior 
deity  sent  down  from  heaven;  but  no  one  at 
that  time,  so  far  as  the  records  show,  believed 
that  he  was  equal  with  the  Father.  The  gos- 
pel of  John  was  in  all  probability  not  then  in 
existence,  but  even  the  gospel  of  John  makes 
Jesus  say  expressly,  "My  Father  is  greater 
than  I"  (John  14:28).  "I  am  come  in  my 
Father's  name"  (John  5:  43).  "The  works  which 
the  Father  hath  given  me  to  finish  .  .  .  bear 
witness  of  me  that  the  Father  hath  sent  me" 
Qohn  5:36). 

Deification  is  barbaric  ignorance,  transcend- 
ent wonder  at  an  uncomprehended  genius. 
There  is  nothing  singular  in  the  deification  of 
Jesus.  He  is  the  evening  star  of  the  old  twi- 
light in  which  thousands  of  heroes  and  rulers 
were  thus  honored,  and  the  morning  star  of  the 
new  dawn  in  which  all  men  are  sons  of  God. 

It  was  not  Jews  but  Greeks  who  fashioned 
the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.     Some  few  Jews 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CENTURIES     269 

may  indeed  have  apostatized  from  the  sublime 
monotheism  of  their  ancient  faith,  but  it  is  to 
the  eternal  honor  of  the  Jewish  people  as  a 
whole  that  through  the  long  twilight,  deepen- 
ing at  last  into  blackest  midnight  of  idolatry 
and  superstition,  they  have  patiently  waited 
for  that  dawning,  the  early  streaks  of  which 
are  now  everywhere  visible. 

The  testimony  of  the  Jews,  the  countrymen 
of  Jesus,  the  nation  most  familiar  with  great 
prophets  and  best  able  to  understand  their  lan- 
guage and  aims,  is  of  itself  sufficient  to  prove 
that  Jesus  was  a  man.  And  it  is  reasonable  to 
believe  that  if  Gentiles  had  not  distorted  Chris- 
tianity, the  Jews  would  soon  have  included 
Jesus  among  the  roll  of  their  authoritative 
prophets,  as  after  a  time  they  included  so  many 
others  whose  teachings  they  at  first  rejected 
and  scorned. 

The  world  owes  the  Jew  an  immense  debt  of 
gratitude  for  his  continual  protest  against  the 
false  and  heathen  doctrines  that  have  been 
associated  with  the  person  and  teaching  of 
Jesus.  In  rejecting  Jesus  as  a  prophet  alto- 
gether the  Jews  made  a  great  mistake,  but  a 
large  share  of  the  blame  of  that  error  must  be 
charged  to  those  who  made  Jesus  the  center  of 
an  absurd  and  idolatrous  system.     The  Jews, 


270   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

taught  by  the  prophets  and  the  psalmists,  did 
well  to  reject  the  doctrines  of  the  Trinity,  the 
incarnation,  the  efficacy  of  sacraments,  the 
apostolic  succession,  and  salvation  by  imputed 
righteousness.  Those  ideas  are  corruptions  of 
the  teachings  of  Jesus,  and  to  reject  them  is 
one  mode  of  accepting  Jesus  himself.  The 
medieval  Jew  was  perhaps  as  true  a  Christian 
as  the  medieval  churchman. 

The  earliest  testimony  of  the  Christian 
church,  the  consistent  testimony  of  the  Jewish 
nation,  and  the  present  judgment  of  intelligent 
Asiatics  are  all  against  the  irrational  doctrine 
of  the  Trinity.  How,  then,  did  such  a  concep- 
tion ever  fasten  itself  upon  the  creed  of  Chris- 
tendom? It  was  part  of  that  paganization  of 
the  early  church  by  which  the  apostles  were 
substituted  for  the  greater,  and  the  saints  of 
the  church  for  the  smaller,  heathen  deities,  and 
by  which  angels  took  the  place  of  nymphs, 
fauns  and  dryads. 

The  earlier  admixture  took  place  in  the 
East,  but  in  the  East  and  West  alike  the  church 
was  soon  saturated  with  pagan  ideas.  Jesus 
was  more  and  more  closely  identified  with  God 
the  Father,  until  at  last  the  differences  of 
opinion  in  the  church  became  so  marked  that 
it  was  necessary  to  attempt  to  define  belief  on 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CENTURIES     271 

the  subject.  A  general  council  held  at  Anti- 
och  in  269  refused  to  declare  the  Son  equal  to 
the  Father,  ^nd  expressly  condemned  the  ex- 
pression Iiomo-ousios,  which  means  of  the  same 
substance.  The  controversy,  however,  con- 
tinued, and  the  great  council  of  Nicaea  in  325 
singularly  enough  adopted  as  the  test  of  ortho- 
doxy the  very  word,  hotno-ousios,  which  had 
been  condemned  by  the  earlier  assembly.  The 
pendulum  now  swung  to  the  other  side.  As 
Jesus  had  been  authoritatively  declared  by  a 
great  council  representing  the  whole  church  to 
be  of  the  same  substance  with  the  Father, 
many  enthusiasts  began  to  teach  that  he  was  in 
all  respects  one  with  the  Father,  or,  in  other 
words,  that  it  was  God  himself  who  had  come 
down  to  earth;  and,  as  reverence  for  God  for- 
bade the  supposition  that  he  could  need  food 
and  drink,  could  grow  weary  and  suffer,  these 
Docetae,  Apparitionists  as  we  may  call  them, 
asserted  that  the  body  of  Jesus  was  a  mere 
phantom,  and  all  his  apparent  acts  mere  illu- 
sions. This  doctrine  was  too  extreme  even 
for  the  credulous  multitude,  yet  it  lingered  in 
an  attenuated  form  for  many  centuries;  but  we 
shall  not  follow  it  further  than  to  say  that 
Eutyches  was  condemned  in  451  at  the  council 
of  Chalcedon  for  the  so-called  monophysite,  or 


272      THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

"one  nature,"  heresy.  That  assembly,  wearied 
of  the  controversy  which  had  now  vexed  the 
church  for  three  hundred  years,  and  seeing 
that  it  was  impossible  to  make  a  clear  state- 
ment that  would  harmonize  all  the  diverging 
opinions,  prudently  took  refuge  in  an  ambigu- 
ous and  mystical  phraseology.  It  was  affirmed 
that  Jesus  was  truly  God  and  truly  man,  and 
that  his  two  natures  were  perfectly  united  and 
yet  remained  entirely  distinct. 

The  question  was  soon  set  at  rest  for  a  time, 
not  by  the  long,  ingenious  and  meaningless 
statement  of  the  council,  summarized  above, 
but  by  the  stern  logic  of  events.  It  was  no 
time  for  Christendom  to  waste  its  strength 
upon  barren  and  metaphysical  disputes.  The 
barbarians  were  at  the  frontiers  of  the  Roman 
empire.  The  first  great  invasion  of  the  Huns 
occurred  in  451,  the  very  year  of  this  council, 
and  only  twenty-five  years  later  Rome  itself, 
the  eternal  city,  was  captured  by  the  Goths, 
and  the  Christian  church,  dismayed  and  almost 
submerged  by  the  torrent  of  barbarism,  laying 
aside  all  speculative  questions,  set  itself  to 
work  to  civilize  and  educate  its  conquerors. 
The  practical  Roman  genius  refused  to  waste 
its  strength  on  these  Greek  subtleties.  It 
aimed   at  power,   and  it  won  it   by  practical 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CENTURIES     273 

means,  by  moral  teaching,  by  useful  labors,  by 
careful  legislation,  and  by  an  impressive  cere- 
monial. The  rise  to  power  of  the  Roman 
church,  as  told  in  Milman's  Latin  Christianity^  is 
a  most  wonderful  and  fascinating  story,  but  it 
must  not  detain  us.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  the 
principle  of  authority  grew  and  the  exercise  of 
private  judgment  declined.  The  Bishop  of 
Rome  claimed  to  be  the  Vicar  of  Jesus  Christ, 
the  successor  of  St.  Peter,  the  chief  of  the 
apostles,  and  the  king  of  all  the  kings  of 
earth.  Monarchs  held  the  bridle  or  kissed  the 
foot  of  the  supreme  Pontiff.  The  great  power 
of  the  Popes  had  been  won  not  by  mere  argu- 
ment but  by  promoting  peace  among  rulers, 
and  above  all  by  protecting  the  poor  against 
the  cruelty  and  extortion  of  the  rich.  Many 
abuses  there  doubtless  were,  but  on  the  whole 
for  many  centuries  the  influence  of  the  church 
was  in  the  interest  of  learning,  good  govern- 
ment and  religion.  The  rule  of  Rome  made 
Europe  a  federation,  and  by  maintaining  a 
sense  of  union  among  the  scholars  of  all  coun- 
tries by  the  common  use  of  the  Latin  language, 
it  preserved  amid  the  confusion  of  countless 
harsh  and  unstable  barbaric  tongues  a  large 
part  of  the  noble  literature  and  philosophy  of 
antiquity. 


274   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

But  the  universal  and  absolute  sway  of  the 
Popes,  while  it  was  favorable  to  the  diffusion 
of  the  doctrines  of  the  church  and  such  other 
learning  as  the  church  approved,  made  it 
almost  impossible  to  disseminate  any  opposing 
opinions. 

Printing,  that  is  to  say,  real  printing  by 
movable  metal  types,  was  not  invented  till  the 
year  1450.  Very  few  persons  except  the 
clergy  possessed  ,  any  manuscript  books  or 
could  have  read  them  if  they  had  done  so. 
Few  of  the  clergy  had  a  copy  even  of  the  Latin 
Bible,  and  it  was  not  till  1382  that  a  complete 
translation  of  the  Bible  was  made  into  English 
by  Wye  1  iff e,  "the  morning  star"  of  the  Refor- 
mation. 

All  through  the  Middle  Ages  the  extent  of 
the  sway,  the  magnificence  of  the  pomp,  the 
majesty  of  the  claims  of  Rome,  overawed  the 
imaginations  of  men.  It  seemed  like  blas- 
phemy to  doubt  and  madness  to  assail  any  of 
the  fundamental  doctrines  of  the  Papacy. 
There  were  scholars  equal  to  any  that  ever 
lived  in  industry  and  acuteness,  but  they  were 
exclusively  occupied  in  harmonizing,  develop- 
ing and  systematizing  the  doctrines  of  the 
church.  Aquinas  and  Duns  Scotus  and  their 
fellows  from  a  few  texts  spun  immense  cob- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CENTURIES     275 

webs  of  learning,  exquisitely  ingenious  and 
fine,  but,  like  all  other  metaphysics  drawn  from 
false  premises,  of  no  practical  value  what- 
ever. 

If  a  doubt  as  to  the  deity  of  Christ  arose  in 
the  mind  of  some  daring  thinker,  he  was  over- 
awed as  he  thought  of  his  presumption  in  dis- 
senting from  the  universal  creed  of  Christendom 
from  the  teaching  of  the  church  and  the 
schools,  and  the  implicit  faith  of  the  multi- 
tude. Those  were  the  ages  of  faith,  and  to 
breast  the  current  of  opinion  then  was  like  try- 
ing to  swim  against  Niagara. 

The  circumstances  were  such  as  to  produce  a 
contagion  of  credulity,  and  probably  few  per- 
sons ever  seriously  doubted  the  fundamental 
tenets  of  the  church.  If  now  and  then  a 
scholar  of  unusual  independence  of  mind  did 
so,  he  was  likely  for  practical  reasons  to  sup- 
press his  doubtings.  By  acquiescing  in  pre- 
vailing opinions  he  was  sure  of  a  livelihood, 
and  had  a  line  of  promotion  before  him,  but  to 
become  a  heretic  was  danger  and  disgrace  and 
in  all  probability  death.  America  was  not  yet 
discovered,  and  travel  was  still  travail.  There 
was  no  foreign  country  to  which  he  might  emi- 
grate unless  after  a  long  and  painful  pilgrimage 
on  foot  he  was  willing  to  be  a  wretched  exile, 


276     THE   CARPENTER   PROPHET 

to  live  a  lonely  and  precarious  life  in  some 
Mohammedan  or  pagan  land. 

The  heretic  who  stayed  at  home  was  excom- 
municated. All  persons  were  forbidden  to 
speak  to  him  or  to  provide  him  with  food  or 
shelter,  to  buy  from  or  sell  to  him,  to  employ 
him  or  accept  employment  from  him.  Nowa- 
days excommunication  is  easily  braved,  but  in 
the  height  of  the  power  of  the  church  it  was  a 
fearful  punishment.  The  excommunicated 
man  was  a  moral  leper,  a  social  outcast.  His 
life,  if  he  managed  to  live  at  all,  was  a  burden 
to  him.  Of  course,  even  then,  there  were 
courageous  men  who  defied  excommunication. 
Men  who  had  physical  force  on  their  side 
sometimes  braved  spiritual  and  social  terrors. 
Powerful  nobles  and  great  kings  could  fight  on 
something  like  equal  terms  against  bishops 
and  popes,  though  the  story  of  Henry's  stand- 
ing three  winter  days  clad  only  in  his  shirt  at 
the  gates  of  Canossa  begging  for  an  audience 
in  which  he  might  prostrate  himself  at  the 
Pope's  feet  and  ask  forgiveness  is  an  impres- 
sive reminder  of  what  an  excommunication 
from  the  church  once  meant. 

Kings  were  sometimes  victors  by  force  of 
arms,  but  what  could  a  private  scholar  do 
against  the  power  of  the  church?    The  church 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CENTURIES     277 

had  its  own  courts  and  police,  and  could 
arrest,  imprison  and  sentence  a  refractory 
ecclesiastic  without  the  aid  of  the  secular 
authorities.  The  contumacious  critic  of  the 
church  was  immured  in  a  cloister  cell,  fed  on 
bread  and  water  and  allowed  the  use  of  no 
books  except  manuals  of  devotion.  Even  an 
indiscreet  defender  of  the  church,  who,  like 
Bishop  Pecock  in  his  Repressor^  a  book  written 
against  the  Lollards,  made  concessions  to 
reason  against  authority,  was  likely  to  be  con- 
demned as  was  Pecock  to  such  an  imprison- 
ment. 

If  a  heretic  had  publicly  promulgated  his 
opinions  and  would  not  publicly  recant  them, 
the  offender  was  sometimes  excommunicated 
with  bell,  book  and  candle,  a  ceremony  that 
tried  the  victim's  own  nerves  and  filled  the 
public  assembly  with  dread  and  horror.  The 
church  was  at  first  brilliantly  lighted  with  many 
candles,  which  were  extinguished  one  by  one 
as  the  service  of  condemnation  proceeded.  At 
last,  when  but  one  candle  remained,  the  officiat- 
ing priest  pronounced  the  awful  words:  "Cursed 
be  he  from  the  crown  of  the  head  to  the  sole  of 
the  foot.  Out  be  he  taken  from  the  book  of 
life,  and  as  this  candle  is  cast  from  the  sight 
of  men,  so  be  his  soul  cast  from  the  sight  of 


278   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

God  into  the  deepest  pit  of  hell.  Amen." 
When  the  Bible  had  been  shut  as  a  sign  that 
the  poor  heretic  had  no  part  in  it,  and  the  can- 
dle quenched  as  a  sign  that  he  was  cast  into 
outer  darkness,  the  church  bell  was  tolled  as 
for  a  departed  soul  to  indicate  the  sinner's 
eternal  death. 

When  the  condition  of  Europe  during  the 
Dark  Ages  is  considered,  it  is  no  wonder  that 
there  was  little  organized  opposition  to  the 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity  until  the  great  revolt  of 
the  northern  nations  from  Rome,  known  as  the 
Reformation.  The  Reformation  itself  was  not 
primarily  caused  by  speculative  or  doctrinal 
questions.  It  was  a  revolt  against  the  oppres- 
sion, the  greed  and  the  corruption  of  the 
clergy,  and  the  weapon  of  the  reformers  was 
the  Bible  recently  translated  into  the  various 
tongues  of  the  North  and  made  accessible  to 
the  multitude  by  the  art  of  printing.  Against 
the  claim  of  the  Popes  to  divine  authority  and 
infallible  wisdom  the  reformers  appealed  to  the 
Scriptures  as  the  only  infallible  guide,  and 
thus,  in  throwing  off  one  yoke,  they  fixed  an- 
other with  almost  equal  firmness  upon  the 
necks  of  men.  They  got  rid  of  many  ecclesias- 
tical errors  and  abuses,  but  in  setting  up  the 
Bible  as  infallible  they  gave  a  new  lease  of  life 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CENTURIES     279 

to  every  error  in  the  book  and  opposed  new 
obstacles  to  scientific  investigation. 

In  the  tumultuous  and  terrible  sixteenth  cen- 
tury Catholics  and  Protestants  vied  with  each 
other  in  sending  heretics  to  the  dungeon  and 
the  stake.  Hundreds  were  burned  to  death 
before  the  battle  for  free  thought  was  won. 
Even  as  late  as  161 1,  the  year  the  authorized 
version  of  the  Bible  was  made  and  only  nine 
years  before  the  Mayflower  took  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers  to  Plymouth,  Bartholomew  Leggatt  and 
Edward  Wightman  were  burned  in  England  for 
denying  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  Still,  in 
spite  of  all  opposition.  Unitarian  churches 
arose  in  Poland  and  Hungary,  and  many  illus- 
trious men,  among  whom  are  Milton,  Locke 
and  Newton,  professed  Arian  opinions.  But 
the  authority  of  the  Bible  held  the  clergy  and 
people  of  the  English  churches  to  the  dual 
theory  of  the  nature  of  Jesus  which  is  legiti- 
mately deduced  from  its  pages.  There  could 
be,  and  there  can  be,  no  thorough  and  con- 
sistent belief  in  the  humanity  of  Jesus  until  the 
opinions  of  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament 
are  tested  like  those  of  other  men  by  reason 
and  observation,  and  one  or  the  other  of  the 
two  inconsistent  biblical  theories  is  rejected. 

Through  most  of  the  seventeenth  century  the 


28o      THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

law  continued  to  deny  religious  liberty. 
When  the  arbitrary  rule  of  Charles  I.  roused 
the  Puritans  to  revolt,  as  the  war  proceeded 
sects  multiplied.  Though  parliament  was 
fighting  against  the  king  for  its  own  liberty,  it 
had  no  thought  of  granting  liberty  of  con- 
science to  the  people.  By  a  great  majority  it 
passed  a  statute  against  blasphemies  and 
heresies  which  declares  "any  man  denying  the 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity  or  that  the  books  of 
Scripture  are  the  Word  of  God  .  ,  ,  and  refus- 
ing on  trial  to  abjure  his  heresy  shall  suffer  the 
pain  of  death." 

In  America  the  Cambridge  Platform,  made 
very  soon  after  the  Westminster  Confession 
had  been  adopted  by  the  English  parliament, 
also  declared  that  blasphemies  and  heresies 
were  to  be  restrained  and  punished  by  the  civil 
authorities. 

In  vain  had  been  Cromwell's  declaration, 
"In  things  of  the  mind  we  look  for  no  compul- 
sion but  that  of  right  and  reason,"  even  when 
he  enforced  it  by  the  appeal,  "I  beseech  you, 
brethren,  by  the  mercies  of  God  to  think  it 
possible  that  you  may  be  mistaken." 

The  death  of  Cromwell  and  the  downfall  of 
Puritanism  increased  the  rigor  of  persecution. 
By  stringent  acts  of  uniformity  dissenters  were 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CENTURIES     281 

harried  and  crushed,  and  thousands  of  them 
were  thrown  into  prison.  Tyranny,  however, 
perished  of  its  own  folly  and  excess.  A 
second  revolution  took  place,  and,  in  1689,  the 
Act  of  Toleration  was  passed,  by  which  a  large 
measure  of  religious  "toleration,"  if  not  of 
equal  justice,  was  secured. 

Since  that  date  the  chief  hindrances  to  the 
advance  of  a  recognition  of  the  true  nature  of 
Jesus  and  of  his  gospel  have  been  those  ancient 
and  inveterate  foes  of  every  spiritual  religion, 
viz.,  the  sinfulness,  the  worldliness,  the  preju- 
dice and  the  ignorance  of  men.  To  be  saved 
by  faith  in  the  atonement  of  Christ  is  easier 
than  to  be  saved  by  obeying  his  commands  and 
imitating  his  example. 

However,  in  spite  of  all  obstacles,  the  truth 
is  gradually  winning  its  way.  The  doctrine  of 
the  humanity  of  Jesus  is  keeping  pace  step  by 
step  with  every  advance  in  public  intelligence 
and  virtue.  In  this  country  we  are  now  a  long 
way  from  the  grossness  of  medieval  supersti- 
tion. Men  no  longer  speak  of  God  as  dying 
on  the  cross,  or  swear  by  "God's  wounds."  It 
is  only  in  the  most  ignorant  and  bigoted 
countries  that  regiments  are  called  "The 
Division  of  the  Mother  of  God,"  or  "The 
Division  of  the  Son  of  God,"  as  was  the  case 


283   THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

with  the  army  of  Ecuador  until  1875.  No 
Protestant  church  would  now  condemn  any 
one  for  refusing  to  call  Mary  the  Mother  of 
God,  as  Nestorius  was  condemned  for  doing  by 
the  council  of  Ephesus  in  431. 

The  Roman  theology,  built  on  the  ruin  of  an 
empire,  venerable  by  its  antiquity,  sanctified  by 
the  blood  of  martyrs  and  adorned  by  the  great- 
est masters  of  architecture,  sculpture,  painting 
and  music  is  now  rapidly  decaying.  It  took  a 
thousand  years  to  build  up  the  mighty  edifice; 
and  its  massive  walls,  like  the  ruins  of  the 
Coliseum,  may  long  defy  the  forces  of  time. 
The  slighter  systems  of  Luther  and  Calvin 
were  built  up  more  quickly  and  their  collapse 
will  be  more  rapid  and  complete.  In  the  very 
church  at  Geneva  in  which  Calvin  once 
preached  his  narrow  dogmas  and  cruel  decrees, 
Unitarian  congregations  have  now  for  fifty 
years  listened  to  rational  expositions  of  Scrip- 
ture and  to  a  gospel  of  good  will.  All  the 
Protestant  churches  have  softened  and  attenu- 
ated their  theology.  Of  the  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity,  the  crowning  folly  of  orthodoxy,  a 
twin  absurdity  with  transubstantiation,  there  is 
now  very  rarely  any  attempted  exposition  or 
defense. 

The  deification  of  Jesus  is  the  heart  of  the 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CENTURIES     283 

church  of  Rome.  One  who  accepts  that  pro- 
tests illogically  and  vainly  against  the  Papacy, 
Mariolatry  and  saint  worship,  for  these  are  all 
legitimate  outgrowths  of  the  belief  that  Jesus 
is  God. 

The  struggle  for  a  genuine  Christianity  free 
from  false  philosophy  and  pagan  error  has  been 
long  and  bitter,  but  the  victory  of  truth  and 
righteousness  is  drawing  near.  If  it  be  asked 
why  the  advance  of  thought  has  been  so  slow 
and  so  painful,  the  only  answer  is  that  in  the 
inscrutable,  though,  as  faith  believes,  the 
beneficent,  providence  of  God,  man's  intel- 
lectual and  moral,  as  well  as  his  physical, 
progress  must  be  made  "inch  by  painful 
inch."  Every  reformer  in  making  every  step 
in  advance  has  done  so  in  spite  of  "fears  within 
and  fightings  without."  The  ignorant  have 
opposed  the  dead  weight  of  their  stupidity,  the 
selfish  the  active  ingenuity  of  their  ambition, 
the  bigoted  the  fierce  cruelty  of  their  fanati- 
cism against  every  social,  political  and  moral 
reform;  yet,  in  spite  of  all,  knowledge  and  free- 
dom have  increased. 

It  is  surprising  how  many  facts  that  now 
seem  obvious  were  unnoticed  or  unheeded 
for  thousands  of  years.  Countless  genera- 
tions of  men  have  gazed  at  the  stars,  yet  till 


284  THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

the  sixteenth  century  not  one  man  in  a  mil- 
lion had  any  true  conception  of  astronomy,  and 
when  Galileo  tried  to  expound  the  truth  dis- 
covered by  Copernicus  he  was  forced  by 
clerical  persecutors  to  recant  what  an  infal- 
lible Pontiff  declared  to  be  his  errors.  Since 
the  beginning  of  the  human  race  men  have 
roamed  over  the  earth's  surface,  yet  geology  is 
a  nineteenth  century  science.  Having  eyes 
men  saw  not.  They  shivered  and  sighed  for 
fuel  while  dwelling  upon  beds  of  anthracite 
coal.  They  sat  in  darkness  or  by  rush  lights 
when  wells  of  illuminating  oil  were  bubbling 
around  them. 

Ever  since  man  learned  to  use  fire,  steam  has 
wreathed  itself  before  his  stupid  eyes,  yet  the 
force  that  now,  guided  by  genius,  does  more 
work  than  all  human  muscles  and  all  draught 
animals  put  together,'was  not  utilized  until  the 
last  century. 

If  they  do  these  things  in  a  green  tree,  what 
shall  be  done  in  the  dry?  If  in  these  cases 
men  have  failed  to  understand  facts  of  the  most 
practical  concern  which  were  continually  forced 
upon  their  attention  by  their  senses,  is  it  sur- 
prising that  they  have  been  slow  to  learn 
abstract  religious  truths? 

It  took  the  ancestors  of  the  more  enlightened 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CENTURIES     285 

nations  of  the  world  thousands  of  years  to  get 
rid  of  gross  forms  of  idolatry.  Even  the  Jews, 
the  chosen  people,  the  prophet  nation,  relapsed 
again  and  again  into  polytheism,  offered  sacri- 
fices to  Baal  and  worshiped  images  of  a  calf. 
"Every  man  is  a  quotation  from  all  his  ances- 
tors." We  are  all  descendants  of  hundreds  of 
generations  of  pagans.  The  blood  of  the 
cave-dwellers  who  thought  the  thunderbolt  the 
dart  of  an  angry  god  is  in  our  veins.  Our 
nerves  still  tremble  with  the  superstitions 
which  made  altars  reek  with  blood  to  propiti- 
ate the  vengeful  deities  who  scourged  men  with 
famine  and  pestilence.  And  so  we  still  have  a 
fading  theology  that  makes  Christ  a  mediator 
between  an  angry  God  and  a  suffering  race  of 
men  and  his  death  an  atoning  sacrifice.  But 
all  this  is  passing  away,  and  we  are  coming  to 
understand  the  simple  gospel  of  Jesus,  the 
plain  gospel  of  purity,  love,  and  service.  A 
righteous  and  useful  life  is  the  only  condition 
of  discipleship  or  of  salvation  ever  imposed  by 
Jesus,  and  the  only  one  the  modern  Christian 
world  cares  much  about. 

Counting  as  we  in  our  ignorance  and  impa- 
tience are  accustomed  to  count,  progress  has 
been  slow  and  difficult,  and  every  one  who 
struggles  against  ignorance,  error  and  cruelty 


•286      THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

echoes  the  pathetic  wail  of  the  ancient  Psalm- 
ist, "How  long,  Lord,  wilt  thou  hide  thyself? 
.  .  .  How  long  shall  the  wicked  triumph?"  But 
now  "we  know  only  in  part."  The  time  that 
seems  to  us  so  long  is  but  an  insignificant  frag- 
ment of  eternity,  and  the  short  struggle  for 
truth  and  righteousness  now  will  enrich  and 
ennoble  our  lives  through  all  the  millenniums 
of  the  future. 

We  need  to  revise  the  scale  of  our  thinking 
and  take  the  measuring  rod  with  which  in  the 
Apocalypse  the  temple  of  God  was  measured. 
We  need  to  take  the  sublime  chronology  of  the 
ancient  poet  who  declared  that  "one  day  is 
with  the  Lord  as  a  thousand  years."  Chris- 
tianity is  yet  in  its  early  morning.  The  shad- 
ows of  paganism  still  linger  about  it  and 
obscure  its  brightness,  the  clouds  of  mythology 
still  invest  it  in  gaudy,  unsubstantial  splen- 
dors. But  the  shadows  will  fly  and  the  scarlet 
tints  will  fade  and  the  white  and  holy  light  of 
truth  will  fill  the  noon-day  sky. 

A  mere  caricature  of  Christianity,  a  medley 
of  pagan  superstitions,  of  worldly  ambitions, 
of  idle  ceremonies,  and  of  ascetic  follies,  has 
ruled  a  quarter  of  the  world  for  a  little  while. 
Instead  of  it  we  expect  that  sooner  or  later  a 
true  Christianity  will  prevail,  and  that  in  all 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CENTURIES     287 

lands  wars  and  oppression  will  cease,  all  the 
resources  of  the  earth  will  be  developed  to  the 
utmost  for  the  common  good,  and  all  men 
will  live  in  ever-increasing  wisdom,  virtue  and 
happiness.  Such  at  least,  as  I  understand  it, 
is  the  vision  that  was  in  the  mind  of  Jesus  when 
he  established  the  kingdom  of  God  among 
men. 

The  ascription  of  divine  powers  and  honors 
to  Jesus  was  sincere  and  impressive  in  an  early- 
day  when  great  men  were  commonly  deified, 
but  in  our  age  of  larger  knowledge  and  of  less 
vivid  and  riotous  imagination  Jesus  is  by  these 
extravagant  claims  wounded  almost  unto  the 
death  in  the  house  of  his  friends.  The  ex- 
pression, "the  only-begotten  Son  of  God,"  robs 
Jesus  of  all  real  personality  and  power,  just  as 
the  high-sounding  titles  of  the  Emperor  of 
China,  the  Son  of  Heaven  and  Elder  Brother 
of  the  sun  and  moon,  exclude  that  unfortunate 
monarch  from  any  active  participation  in  gov- 
ernment and  make  him  a  roi faineant,  an  idle 
figurehead,  hardly  better  than  a  prisoner  of 
state.  So  the  exaggerated  theological  honors 
of  Jesus  take  him  away  from  the  working 
brotherhood  of  men  and  surround  him  with 
frigid  and  remote  grandeur.  The  doctrine  of 
the  Trinity  is  purely  for  show.     It  rouses  no 


288      THE  CARPENTER  PROPHET 

enthusiasm,  it  makes  no  converts  at  home  or 
abroad.  It  is  an  incubus  upon  the  human 
Christ  whom  the  world  loves  as  the  noblest  son 
of  our  common  Father.  It  is  a  tree  that  bears 
nothing  but  leaves.  It  gives  barren  eulogy  for 
practical  obedience.  The  decline  of  this 
spurious  glory  will  be  the  beginning  of  a  new 
epoch  in  the  real  power  of  the  life  of  Jesus  in 
the  world.  We  are  not,  as  some  timid  persons 
seem  to  think,  looking  upon  the  sunset  of 
faith,  but  are  witnessing  the  sunrise  of  an  im- 
measurably more  glorious  day,  a  rnillennium 
in  which  religion  will  not  be  an  affair  of  one 
day  in  seven  in  the  church,  but  of  every  day 
and  every  place;  in  which  men  will  not  serve 
with  lip  and  knee  only,  not  say  Lord,  Lord, 
and  neglect  justice  and  mercy,  but  one  in 
which  the  spirit  of  Christ  will  be  carried  into 
the  every-day  life,  into  all  the  industries,  all 
the  business  and  all  the  governments  of  the 
world. 


THE   END. 


PRINTED  BY  R.  R.  DONNELLEY 
AND  SONS  COMPANY,  AT  THE 
LAKESIDE  PRESS,  CHICAGO,  ILL. 


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